This portal is for the submission of applications to SGS programs.
Call for Applications: Fellowship Advisor—Graduate Assistantship
Deadline to apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until January 21, 2026. The application portal closes on January 21, 2026. GradFund is currently accepting applications for anticipated openings on its Fellowship Advising staff.
GradFund assists graduate students with navigating the process of applying for externally funded fellowships and grants. 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:
- Conduct confidential fellowship and grant pre-application and application review meetings.
- Present GradFund programs and workshops.
- Perform outreach to graduate programs and students.
- Maintain and update records in the GradFund Award database
- Assist with special projects
Fellowship Advisors are supported on an academic year Graduate Assistantship that begins September 1, 2026 and ends June 30, 2027.
Selected candidates should be available to work hourly ($25/hr) (15-20 hours/week) during the summer (May-August 2026) 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, 2026 to May 2027.)
An application should be submitted through the GradFund/SGS Submittable application portal. Application Components
- 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 2026-2027 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
School of Graduate Students
Promotion of Academic Excellence Program
Request for the Provision of Tuition and/or Fellows Health Insurance from the Office of the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies
The School of Graduate Studies in its commitment to supporting graduate student success provides access to fellows' health insurance and provision of tuition remission to doctoral students who secure fellowship support.
Fellows's Health Insurance Enrollment and Tuition Remission for Externally Funded Fellows
To incentivize and support graduate student success, the School of Graduate Studies will provide doctoral students who secure nationally or internationally competitive fellowships with the minimum number of tuition credits required each semester they are on the fellowship.
Each year, Rutgers University sponsors a Student Health Insurance Plan with UnitedHealthcare Student Resources (UHCSR) to provide health insurance to doctoral students who are on internal or external fellowship support.
The School of Graduate Studies manages student enrollment in collaboration with the graduate programs. SGS doctoral programs based in the NB/P Chancellor area may request enrollment of their fellows through this portal.
The effective enrollment date is September 1, annually.
Requests for the tuition benefit and/or health insurance enrollment should be submitted to the portal by graduate program staff and should include copies of the fellowship award documents. If additional information is needed, the request will be sent through the portal. The decision on whether tuition will be provided will also be communicated to the program through the portal.
Tuition Remission to Support Doctoral Degree Completion
To support and incentivize graduate student success, graduate programs may request up to 3 credits of tuition support for unfunded doctoral students who are in the final year of their program of study. We recognize that there may be times when a student has expended their funding package, and the cost of tuition is a barrier to timely completion of their PhD. SGS will receive and review requests from graduate program staff for the one semester provision of up to 3 credits of tuition to help a student finish their degree.
Requests for the tuition benefit should be submitted to the portal by graduate program staff and should include a written request from the graduate program director that explains the need for the tuition and the plan and timetable for the student to complete their degree. A clear and compelling case should be made for why the tuition is needed including an explanation for why the tuition cannot be covered by the graduate program or the school in which the program resides. A small percentage of these requests can be granted each year.
Requests may be submitted through the SGS Submittable Portal and will be reviewed weekly: https://rutgersnewbrunswick.submittable.com/submit/7aa7988c-31b0-419b-a3d2-7f05bfa43f30/request-for-the-provision-of-tuition-and-or-fellows-health-insurance-from-the-off
Questions regarding the program should be directed to Senior Associate Dean Teresa Delcorso-Ellmann at sgs.sadean@grad.rutgers.edu.
Program Purpose: The School of Graduate Studies University & Louis Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowship is designed to provide support during a doctoral candidate’s final year of dissertation research and writing. The award is intended to support completion and recognize excellence. We anticipate awarding up to 10 University and Louis Bevier Dissertation Completion Fellowships for the 2026-2027 academic year. All SGS doctoral students (School 16) are eligible to apply.
The fellowship provides:
- Stipend of $30,833
- Health insurance (if needed)
- Tuition remission for up to 2 research credits per semester (no more than 4 total for the academic year)
Eligibility: SGS doctoral students (School 16) who plan to complete their degree requirements and receive their PhD in 2027. Fellows may not hold other full-time awards or University HR appointments concurrently with University and Louis Bevier Fellowships.
Preference will be given to students who can demonstrate that they do not have promised funding for the 2026-2027 academic year or to students who can demonstrate that by foregoing a teaching assistantship, the fellowship will allow them to concentrate fully on completing their dissertations.
Program Timeline:
Competition Opens: October 22, 2025
Student Deadline: January 21, 2026
Faculty Letter Deadline: January 23, 2026
Graduate Program Deadline review and ranking period: January 27, 2026 - February 23, 2026
SGS level review: February 24, 2026 - March 24, 2026
Applicants and Programs notified of decisions: April 1, 2026
Deadline to accept decline: April 15, 2026
Evaluation Criteria: Demonstrated excellence of the candidate, including (but not limited to):
Applicant Quality
- Overall academic record
- Conference presentations and posters
- Publications
- Internal/external fellowships and grants
- Prizes and other forms of scholarly recognition
Project Quality
- Intellectual Merit
- Significance to the discipline
Plan for Completion
- Feasible plan to complete the dissertation with fellowship support
Availability of other sources of funding
Faculty Endorsement
- Strength of the letter of recommendation
- Graduate program/track review and scoring
Application Components: Your application consists of the following items:
- Your completed application form;
- Your CV;
- Transcripts (unofficial) from all of your graduate institutions;
- 2 letters of recommendation (One letter must be from your dissertation advisor/chair and the other should be from a member of your dissertation committee);
- A 5-page (double-space, Arial, 11-point font) proposal describing your dissertation project;
- A 1-page completion timeline;
- A 2-page project bibliography
Review Process: Only completed applications will be reviewed. The review process is a three-stage review process. In stage one, a technical review will confirm your eligibility to be considered for the fellowship. Only eligible applicants will be moved forward to stage two. In stage two, your application is reviewed, scored and ranked by your graduate program or track. In stage three, your application is reviewed by the multidisciplinary SGS University & Louis Bevier Fellowship Committee. All decisions by the SGS Committee are final and confidential.
Questions? Please send your questions about the competition or application process, to: SGS_Awards@grad.rutgers.edu.
Log in to get started:
We use the university's single sign on (SSO) tool on the Submittable platform. If you have used our platform in the past, click on the "Have an Account? Sign In" button and follow the links for Single Sign On. If you are a first time user, click on the "Create Your Account" button and follow the links for Single Sign On.
GradFund External Funding Application Report
Let us know when you’ve started your application, or when you’ve won. SGS students may be eligible for additional resources from the School of Graduate Studies. Plus, we want to help you develop a competitive application and ultimately, celebrate your success!
In your report, please tell us whether you plan to apply for a specific award, if you have an application in development, have submitted it or have results. You may report one award per form and you should plan to initiate a form for each award that you plan to apply for, each cycle that you apply for external funding. As you move through the application process, be sure to return and provide an update.
Log in to get started:
We use the university's single sign on (SSO) tool on the Submittable platform. If you have used our platform in the past, click on the "Have an Account? Sign In" button and follow the links for Single Sign On. If you are a first time user, click on the "Create Your Account" button and follow the links for Single Sign On.
The SGS Fellowship for Excellence is a premier School of Graduate Studies recruitment award that supports the admission of outstanding incoming Ph.D. students by recognizing academic excellence, research innovation, and leadership potential.
If you have any questions about the form or encounter technical issues, feel free to reach out to the SGS team, Diego Chica (diegochk@grad.rutgers.edu).