Awards and Opportunities

The following is a summary of special fellowships and other funding and award opportunities provided and/or administered by the Graduate School–New Brunswick (GSNB). Unless otherwise indicated, individual fellows are selected by the school, which bases its decisions on the principles of merit as well as fair and reasonable distribution among the relevant units. The dean of GSNB will be advised of the allocation of funding opportunities by the Executive Council of the New Brunswick Graduate Faculty. Announcements will be mailed out with information on application procedures and deadlines. Students do not apply directly for these fellowships; they are nominated by graduate program directors.

• Diversity Fellowships

  Several fellowships intended to enhance diversity in graduate education in New Brunswick and/or Rutgers University are administered through the GSNB:

  • Graduate School Diversity Fellowships (formerly MAP): Stipends and tuition available for Ph.D. students. Stipends are currently set at $21,000.
  • Trustees Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Stipends and tuition for five doctoral students and two master's students universitywide.
  • Robeson Fellowship: Stipend (half provided by an endowment, half by the GSNB) for one African-American doctoral student.
  • Ralph Bunche Fellowships: Stipends for 16 students (one- or two-year awards); master's and professional-degree students are eligible. Candidates are presented to the GSNB by the relevant degree-granting units.

• Other Fellowships

  • University/Bevier Fellowships (PDF): Stipends and partial tuition for 12 New Brunswick dissertation-stage students, selected by an appointed committee of New Brunswick Graduate Faculty members, and one stipend for a GSNB entering student who had received a baccalaureate degree from Rutgers. Dissertation-stage Bevier fellowships are intended for two purposes: to support students whose funding from other sources will not continue and to support students who would otherwise have to serve as teaching assistants and would thus be unable to concentrate fully on completing their dissertations.
  • Hazel Vera Dean Fellowships: Fellowships for GSNB doctoral students who are New Jersey residents.

• Matching Tuitions

  The GSNB also provides tuition awards to match competitive, prestigious fellowships won by individual graduate students in all GSNB programs. In most instances, the GSNB also provides health insurance to such students.

• Other Funding Opportunities for Supporting students

  The GSNB has extremely limited funds to support graduate students' research and travel expenses.

  • Dean’s Research Awards
  • Conferences: Three rounds of competition are held annually: July 1, November 1, and March 1. Students must complete the Conference Travel Support form, and submit it to their program directors before unit deadlines that precede ours. Each program director will rank the submissions and present them to the associate dean for academic affairs.
  • Resources for special study and predissertation travel funds: For preliminary work and to attend special courses or summer programs away from campus, in areas of specialization unavailable at Rutgers.

• Teaching and Research Awards

  Each spring, the GSNB honors faculty members and graduate students for outstanding contributions to teaching and research. Faculty committees select two faculty members to receive awards for graduate teaching, two graduate students to receive awards for undergraduate teaching, and up to six graduate students to be recognized for outstanding dissertation research. In addition, two awards are made for staff excellence. Award certificates and checks for $1,000 are presented at a reception in late April hosted by the dean of the GSNB.

  Dissertation Teaching awards are for graduate students interested in developing an advanced undergraduate course in the general area of their dissertation research. A faculty committee selects four graduate students based on their achievements in teaching and scholarship and the quality of their course proposals. Each award carries a summer stipend of $2,000, intended to allow the student time to prepare a course for the following Spring term. The student's compensation for teaching the course is the responsibility of the offering unit.

• Distinguished Alumni/ae Awards

  Each fall, nominations are solicited for awards to distinguished alumni/ae. The deadline is October 1. One award is made in each of the four general areas of study and additional awards are made for early career and for lifetime achievement. Awards are presented at a dinner on the first Friday of March