Graduate School Fellowship Memo Attachment 3: Graduate School Opportunities for Advanced PhD

Students

Graduate School fellowships for advanced PhD students include Endowed PhD Fellowships, Research
Enhancement Fellowships, the Final Year Fellowships, the Summer Research and Travel Grant and the
PhD Achievement Award. The goal of these fellowships is to increase the amount of support that students
have for their work toward the PhD, especially in fields where research assistantships are generally
unavailable and teaching is the primary means of support.

PhD Achievement Awards

To recognize our current PhD students’ academic professional development, the Graduate School
will provide USC PhD Achievement Awards for students with exceptional academic profiles. Six
awards of $3,000 will be made to students from across the university. Each recipient’s primary
faculty advisor will receive a $500 USC Graduate School PhD Mentoring award. Each USC PhD
program may nominate one candidate.

Current students from every PhD program at USC are eligible. The award is for exceptional
achievement as a USC PhD student. The student’s overall profile as a doctoral candidate may
include such elements as significant publications as the sole or primary author; job offers that
signal the outstanding quality of the student’s doctoral work; major awards in a broadly conceived
field; and other markers of excellence appropriate to the student’s field.

Departmental nominators will be asked to submit applications with the following information:
▪ A statement by the student describing her or his academic vision – what s/he has achieved and
hopes to achieve in terms of an academic contribution to the relevant field (up to 500 words)
▪ Documentation for publications, awards, job offers, other achievements
▪ A letter of nomination from the student’s academic advisor or other faculty member who can put
the student’s work into the broader context of the given field
▪ A copy of the student’s most recent curriculum vitae and transcript
▪ Sign-offs from the department chair and dean of the school supporting the nomination.
▪ Contact and general academic information for the nominee and primary faculty advisor

Submissions will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee. Recipients of the USC

PhD Achievement Awards will be invited to lead the column of PhD graduates at the university
commencement.