Student Opportunities

Fellowships and Awards

International Graduate Research Fellowships (IGRF)

These fellowships provide graduate students a short-term, meaningful research experience in an international context, broadening the student’s knowledge, perspective, and professional networks. The fellowships take advantage of ongoing collaborations between UMD faculty and their international colleagues and enhance those collaborations through graduate student exchange.

International Conference Student Support Awards (ICSSA)

These awards cover a graduate student’s registration fee up to $500 for a major international scholarly or professional conference, if the student is presenting a paper, poster, or other research or creative material.

Universitas 21 (U21) Opportunities

U21 is a global network of research universities that focuses on internationalizing higher education. UMD’s membership to U21 offers unique opportunities for graduate students, including:

Three Minutes Thesis (3MT) Competition

This annual competition provides an opportunity for PhD candidates from around the world to explain their research to a non-specialist audience in just three minutes. Each participating university holds a campus-wide competition from which a winner is chosen to represent the university in the international competition. In 2015, UMD’s Carly Muletz Wolz won the People's Choice Award.

2015 UMD 3MT Winners:

Carly Muletz Wolz, 1st Place and U21 People's Choice Winner
Thomas Winkler, Runner-up
Sowmya Subramanian, 2nd Runner-up

Graduate Research Conference

This conference brings together students from a broad range of disciplines to shed light on new ways of thinking. With support from the Graduate School, three UMD doctoral students presented their research at the 2014 conference on ageing in New Zealand. The 2015 conference will take place in Shanghai and focus on the theme “The Digital Future.”

Campus-wide Opportunities

Student Organizations

There are 18 graduate student organizations related to academic programs. There are also many non-academic, cultural, or nationality-based organizations that invite both graduate and undergraduate students to join. Visit orgsync.umd.edu learn more about these organizations.

Tax Preparation Assistance

The Graduate School provides free in-person and online tax preparation assistance for all graduate students who work on campus. The GS also provides free access to Glacier Tax preparation for international students who work on campus.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving is a US holiday observed in late November. Each year, the Graduate School hosts a large and lively Thanksgiving Dinner in the Stamp Student Union to give international students an opportunity to connect with one another and enjoy a taste of American culture. Invitations are sent out shortly before the holiday.