School of Graduate Studies/GradFund

The Office of the EVPAA will continue to award Presidential Graduate Fellowships for AY 2025-26. 

These fellowships are designed to provide supplementary support and are often used as a recruitment tool for our top pool of potential graduate students.  Fellowships will be funded through the OEVPAA for up to three years only.  Deans or chancellors/provosts may choose to provide funds for any additional years to create a five-year package.

Rutgers–New Brunswick has been allocated 12 Presidential Graduate Fellowship. 

Guidelines for Presidential Graduate Fellowships:

• Fellowships are available for doctoral students and will be awarded at $10,000 per student annually for up to 3 years.  Note that these are intended as supplements for appointments such as primary AY TA or GA, or to smaller, less competitive fellowships.  These Presidential Fellowships do not provide tuition remission or health insurance.  
• The Presidential Fellowship Award is supplementary and funds 3 years per student, assuming the student is making satisfactory progress.  Although OEVPAA funds do not extend beyond 3 years, deans or chancellors/provosts may choose to extend funding for years 4 and 5.
• Presidential Fellowships CAN be held simultaneously with other fellowships, or with TA or GA appointments.  Presidential Fellowships can also be used for summer supplementation for students on AY appointments.
• A faculty committee comprised of both graduate programs and professional schools will rank nominees; rankings will be sent to the Office of the EVPAA  and the EVPAA will approve final selections.

 
 Please send your questions about the competition or application process, to SGS_Awards@grad.rutgers.edu.

Call for Applications: Fellowship Advisor—Graduate Assistantship
Deadline to apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until February 7, 2025.  The application portal closes on February 7 2025.

GradFund is currently accepting applications for anticipated openings on its Fellowship Advising staff.
      GradFund assists graduate students with identifying and applying for external, merit-based, research grants and fellowships to support graduate work. This position will be of special interest to graduate students who would like to develop their mentoring and advising skills for a tenure- track career and those who want to explore a career path in higher education administration or other career paths beyond the tenure track. Fellowship Advisors have the following five key areas of responsibility under the supervision of the Assistant Dean for Graduate Student External Support:

 

1. Conduct confidential fellowship and grant pre-application and application review meetings.
2. Present GradFund programs and workshops.
3. Perform outreach to graduate programs and students.
4. Maintain and update records in the GradFund Award database
5. Assist with special projects

Fellowship Advisors are supported on an academic year Graduate Assistantship that begins September 1, 2025 and ends June 30, 2026.
 

Selected candidates should be available to work hourly ($25/hr) (15-20 hours/week) during the summer (May-August 2025) in order to participate in Fellowship Advisor training prior to beginning their GA appointment.

Eligibility The applicant must be a doctoral candidate in the School of Graduate Studies (school 16) who has experience applying for external grants or fellowships as a graduate student and who will be a graduate student for the entire GA appointment period (September 1, 2025 to May 2026.)

      An application should be submitted through the GradFund/SGS Submittable application portal.

Application Components

 

1. A letter of interest, explaining your qualifications to fill the Fellowship Advisor position, including past mentoring experiences you may have. In a brief narrative, summarize your computer skills and respond to the following questions:

• What is your experience applying for external funding?
• How would you use these experiences as a Fellowship Advisor?
• What are your teaching and mentoring experiences and how do you see utilizing these experiences and skills in this position?
• What is your dissertation research? (Limit response to one paragraph, written for the non-specialist)
• What aspect of your dissertation are you currently working on, and what work do you plan to complete during the 2025-2026 academic year?
• When do you plan to finish your dissertation? ·
• What experience do you have doing interdisciplinary work?
• How does this or any other related experience give evidence of your ability to work and provide mentorship across disciplines? 
• What are your career goals and how will being a Fellowship Advisor help you to develop skills to advance these goals?
• What is your availability to work over the summer?

2. A copy of your current CV
 

3. A copy of a recent external grant or fellowship application, written as a graduate student
 

4. A copy of your unofficial graduate transcripts
 

5. A letter of support from your graduate advisor/PI
 

Questions about the GradFund GAships should be addressed to Senior Associate Dean Teresa Delcorso-Ellmann at teresa.delcorso@rutgers.edu

We are pleased to announce that registration for the 2025 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition is officially open! 3MT is an acclaimed national and international competition where doctoral students are tasked with presenting their research in three minutes or less. A communications competition at its core, 3MT helps students to develop their scholarly presentation skills, prepare to enter the academic and professional workforce, and compete for cash prizes. To learn more about the competition, please visit the 3MT webpage. 

Interested School of Graduate Studies doctoral students must register through the Submittable platform. Prior to registering, students should ensure that they are eligible to participate. Eligibility criteria is listed on the 3MT webpage.

The competition will be comprised of two rounds, a Preliminary Round and a Final Round. All registered students will participate in one Preliminary Round, based on availability, and the top participants will move onto the Final Round. The top three presenters in the Final Round will receive the following prizes:

• $500 for first place
• $250 for the runner-up
• $250 for the audience choice

Student registration will close Monday, February 10th. Registered students will be notified of their official 3MT Preliminary Round presentation date by Wednesday, February 12th. Additionally, a virtual Information Session will be held on Monday, February 3rd at 10 a.m. Please register to attend using this link. If you are unable to attend, a recording of the session will be available on the SGS website.
 

Program Timeline

Program Launch: Monday, January 27th

Student Registration: Monday, January 27th – Monday, February 10th

Virtual Information Session: Monday, February 3rd

Preliminary Rounds:

1. Friday, February 21st 1– 3 p.m. 
2. Friday, February 21st 3 – 5 p.m.
3. Friday, February 28th 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Final Round: Friday, March 14th 3 p.m.
 

If you have any questions, please email Erica Reed at erica.reed@rutgers.edu.

Each year, the School of Graduate Studies recognizes the notable achievements of graduate students, faculty, and staff at our annual virtual SGS awards ceremony. These awards recognize important accomplishments in research and scholarship, teaching and mentoring, leadership, outreach, and service across all disciplines, through Chancellor-level affiliations, and within specific disciplinary clusters.
 

The full award portfolio is listed below. Click on the award name to learn more about the award's eligibility and review criteria.

Graduate Student Awards:
 Doctoral Students

• School of Graduate Studies Distinguished Scholarly Achievement Award
• Harvey Waterman Medal of Excellence
• Stanley S. Bergen Medal of Excellence
• Outstanding Doctoral Student Award (up to four awards)
   

  Master's Students

• Outstanding Master's Student Award (up to four awards)
   

  All Graduate Students

• Excellence in Leadership and Teaching Award (up to two awards)
• Excellence in Outreach and Service Award (up to two awards)

Faculty & Staff Awards:

• Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award (up to two awards)
• Excellence in Student Support Award (up to two awards)

All SGS graduate students, faculty, and staff may submit nominations for SGS Achievement & Merit Awards. Self-nominations are encouraged.

    Student nominees must have a successful thesis/dissertation defense (if applicable) and all degree paperwork* submitted by April 1, 2025 for a May 2025 degree date, or received a degree in August 2024, October 2024, or January 2025.
    *Includes submission of all forms and all corrected copies of the dissertation to the appropriate SGS office.

    These are honorific awards and awardees will receive a plaque and Bergen and Waterman awardees will receive a medal.