Guidelines and Nomination Process

President’s Fellowships are enhancement awards added to base fellowship/assistantship packages provided by programs. These base packages must provide full-time support to the candidate and must extend for the duration of the President’s Fellowship. The base package must be comparable to those normally offered by the program and must meet or exceed guidelines for minimum stipends set annually by the Graduate School. (Minimum stipend levels can be found at go.umd.edu/minimum_stipends.)  Programs must commit to providing the base package at the time of nomination for a President’s Fellowship, and the Graduate School must approve any subsequent changes in the proposed base support package.

In addition to the base funding, the program must share the cost of the President’s Fellowship.  The program and/or college must provide $10,000; the Graduate School will provide the remaining $30,000. A nomination from a program will signify a commitment to this cost-sharing agreement.  The required $10,000 cost-share from the program or program/college will be transferred to the Graduate School at the start of the student’s first year.  The Graduate School will disburse the full $40,000 award to the student over 4 or 5 years.  Details about the $10,000 transfer and the award disbursement will be outlined by the program on the student’s acceptance form.

Upon acceptance of an award, the program has the discretion to select a 4- or 5-year payout plan for the student.  The annual stipend will be posted to the student account in two (2) equal installments (Fall/Spring).

The President’s Fellowship does not come with Tuition Assistance.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents entering Ph.D. programs in Fall 2027.  International students are not eligible for the President’s Fellowship.  

All candidates will have exceptional qualifications and a clear promise for outstanding performance in doctoral study and will contribute to the university's ideals as outlined in the UMD Strategic Plan’s Guiding Principles. 

Programs must recommend their nominee(s) for admission prior to making the nomination. 

Candidates who will have an assistantship as their base support must have U.S. citizenship or a valid work authorization.

President’s Fellowships are awarded to programs for specific students and are not transferable to other students. Should the awarded candidate decline the Fellowship or should a student holding a President’s Fellowship graduate or leave the program with enhancement funding outstanding, the Graduate School will return unused funds to the President’s Fellowship pool.

Nomination packages must include the following:

1. Nominee Cover Sheet

2. Letter of nomination from the program’s Chair or DGS, or the student’s prospective advisor, addressing the student’s exceptional qualifications and promise, what contributions the student is likely to make to the program and the field, and what contribution the student would make to diversity in accordance with the program and university mission.

   Letter writers should not make any reference to standardized testing scores.  The letter should cite evidence of the program’s commitment to successful mentorship of doctoral students.  This could include training in holistic admission, department actions to create a supportive student environment, past success in retaining and graduating students from various backgrounds, and/or training in best practices in mentoring graduate students (particularly by the student’s likely advisor).

3. Description of the base fellowship/assistantship support being offered by the program to the student (these base packages must extend at least for the duration of the President’s Fellowship and must meet or exceed guidelines for minimum stipends for fellowships and/or assistantships set annually by the Graduate School; it is expected that these base packages will be at least comparable to those normally offered by the program).
   Candidates who will have an assistantship as their base support must have U.S. citizenship or valid work authorization.
    

4. School of Public Health programs that accept applications through SOPHAS will be required to submit the student’s SOPHAS application.                  

Programs must prepare the above items as three (or four) individual PDF files and submit to the Graduate School Awards Portal at terpengage.umd.edu/gsawards/s/ by the nomination deadline.   At the time of nomination, TerpEngage will prompt nominators to select the correct application (the correct APP-ID).  

An applicant may be nominated for the Flagship and the President’s Fellowship but may receive only one of these awards.

A faculty committee from varied backgrounds and broad disciplinary representation appointed by the Graduate School will serve as the selection committee. Selection decisions will be based on the nominee’s excellence, understood as a convergence of the nominee’s academic success, statement of purpose, prior research or other original scholarship, letters of recommendation, and the program’s letter of nomination, and the ability of the nominee to contribute unique personal and scholarly experiences  to the program. 

The President’s Fellowship selection committee will not consider GRE or other standardized test scores during evaluations.

Award decisions are expected in mid-February.  It is expected that the cohort of awardees will reflect the University’s commitment to diversity, including disciplinary diversity.

President’s Fellows will also submit a brief annual progress report.

The program and the Graduate School will confer regarding any Fellow who experiences significant academic difficulty during the year and will establish benchmarks for monitoring the student’s progress. Continuation of the President’s Fellowship will be contingent upon the student’s resumption of timely and satisfactory progress.

Because the President’s Fellowships are intended for exceptional students, continuation of the Fellowship is predicated on the student maintaining full-time status and making timely and satisfactory progress to degree.

Please direct any questions to Robyn Kotzker in the Office of Funding Opportunities
at rkotzker@umd.edu or 301-405-0281.