Ph.D. Fellowship Opportunities

New Student Fellowships

  • Deadlines: All New Student Fellowships are considered with the January 5th application deadline. New student fellowships are not available for Spring semester. Many new student Ph.D. fellowships are based on merit.

Cornell Fellowship

The Cornell Fellowships provide one academic year of funding, including stipend, tuition, and individual health insurance. This award is taken in the first year, unless otherwise noted by your field. These fellowships may be awarded to U.S. students, permanent residents, or international students. Admitted Ph.D. students will be notified of any fellowship awards as part of the admissions offer.

How to apply: Cornell University Fellowships are awarded at the time of admission; continuing students are ineligible to apply. Prospective students apply for fellowships on the admissions application. To be considered for a university fellowship, respond “yes” to the question on the admissions application asking if you wish to be considered for university assistantships and fellowships.

Diversity Recruitment Fellowships

There are several graduate school recruitment fellowships in support of diversity for incoming doctoral students, our admissions committee has the ability to nominate applicants for a Deans Excellence Fellowship for new research degree students (current students are not eligible.)

For consideration for nomination for a Graduate School Diversity Fellowship, students must also use the Personal Statement to indicate how one or more of the following identities and/or experiences apply to them. Eligibility and submission guidelines are accessible here.

Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE) awards diversity fellowships to students who have been admitted to PhD programs in select fields. The fellowships are designed enhance recruitment, enrollment, and retention of first-generation college and/or underrepresented racial/ethnic minority students in doctoral and master’s level programs.
Contact: dpeng@cornell.edu 

GEM Fellowship Program

The GEM fellowship is a one (1) year fellowship for Ph.D. and M.Eng. underrepresented domestic students supported via a partnership between Cornell Engineering (Ithaca campus only) and the National GEM Consortium.

Thanks to Scandinavia Fellowship

Students from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, or Bulgaria are eligible to apply for this fellowship established by Thanks to Scandinavia in gratitude for the humanity and bravery of the people throughout Scandinavia and Bulgaria who protected persons of the Jewish faith during and after World War II. The fellowship includes a nine-month stipend, full tuition, and Cornell individual student health insurance. To request consideration for this fellowship, please notify your graduate field of your eligibility and request that they nominate you to the Graduate School prior to the fellowship deadline of February 15.

Continuing Student Fellowships

In addition to the university fellowships, competitive fellowships are available to current students from a number of sources including the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships, Provost Diversity Fellowships, and the Africa Fund.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Cornell’s South Asia Program and Southeast Asia Program highly competitive grants, allowing them to offer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to Cornell graduate students. These FLAS fellowships support training in South and Southeast Asian languages and a fuller understanding of the areas, regions, or countries in which those languages are commonly used.

Academic-year awards provide a nine-month stipend and a tuition allowance. Ph.D. and research master’s students who receive FLAS awards usually also receive a stipend supplement to bring the award to the nine-month assistantship minimum and tuition supplementation, along with individual Cornell Student Health Insurance (SHP).

Languages - South Asia: Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Modern Tibetan, Urdu
Southeast Asia: Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Indonesian/Malay, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai, Vietnamese

Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to receive these grants, due to U. S. Department of Education regulations. During the academic-year fellowships, students must enroll in one foreign language and one Area Studies course each semester.

Provost Diversity Fellowship for Advanced Doctoral Students

The Provost Diversity Fellowship is a competitive one‐term (fall, spring, or summer) dissertation completion fellowship designed to advance the Graduate School’s commitment to diversity, access, equity, justice, and inclusion. It is available to advanced Ph.D. students who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or hold DACA, TPS, refugee, or asylee status. Criteria for the award and the application process is available via this site.

To be eligible for an award, nominees must have received at least one year of support (e.g. assistantship, training grant, etc.) from their graduate field. Priority consideration for the Provost Diversity Fellowships will be given to students who meet all of the following conditions: have passed the A Exam prior to the award period for the fellowship; and expect to complete all requirements for the doctorate within three terms (spring, summer, or fall) from the semester of nomination.

Africa Fund

Ph.D. applicants who are citizens of an African country and not permanent residents of the United States are eligible for this award. The fellowship includes a stipend, full tuition, and Cornell individual student health insurance. Awards may be granted for one semester or two. To request consideration for this fellowship, please notify your graduate field of your eligibility and request that they nominate you to the Graduate School.

External Fellowships

To find out about the vast array of awards that will be appropriate for you the UCLA’s fellowship database offers an extensive list of external fellowship opportunities to consider.

NSF GRFP

The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution. To be eligible, applicant must be a US citizen and submitting an application either in their first or second year of graduate study.

DOE Fellowships

The DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship program (SCGF) has supported outstanding graduate students pursuing graduate training in basic research in areas of physics, biology (non-medical), chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computational and computer sciences, and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science mission areas to encourage the development of the next generation of scientific and technical talent in the U.S.

Fulbright Scholars

Fulbright offers many opportunities for funding and collaboration with international educational institutions. Funding packages can cover anything from books to tuition. Review their site for more information. *Fulbright also offers MS funding opportunities as well.