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Graduate School

Fellowships

Dean's Diversity Fellowships
King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship Program
Thomas C. Rumble University Graduate Fellowships

Dean's Diversity Fellowships

The Dean's Diversity Fellowship is designed to attract new doctoral students to Wayne State University. The fellowship covers three academic years during which fellows have no service requirements. The fellowship includes a living allowance of $27,500, tuition up to 10 graduate credits per term at the effective tuition rate, as well as subsidized medical, dental and vision care insurance for 12 months per year. After the initial three year fellowship period, departments are required to provide two additional academic years of support for fellows at the Graduate Assistant minimum rate or better, thus providing a total of five years of support. 

Eligibility

  • Dean's Diversity Fellowships are for new doctoral students onlythey cannot be awarded to continuing doctoral students.
  • Eligibility is restricted to U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
  • Fellows must register for a minimum of eight credit hours in both fall and winter semesters, maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average each semester, and otherwise make satisfactory progress towards the degree.
  • Fellows may not hold graduate assistantships, other fellowships, internships, traineeships, scholarships, or any other employment during the fellowship period.
  • As stated by university policy, Wayne State employees, i.e. persons providing a service to the university, are not eligible to receive fellowships.

Application

Dean's Diversity Fellowship application

King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship Program

The KCP-FFF Program was created by the Michigan State Legislature in 1986 as part of the larger King-Chavez-Parks Initiative, designed to stem the downward spiral of college graduation rates for students underrepresented in postsecondary education. The purpose of the FFF Program is to increase the pool of academically or economically disadvantaged candidates pursuing faculty teaching careers in postsecondary education.

The fellowship consists of a stipend of approximately $10,000, paid in installments during a portion of the academic year. 

Students may hold this fellowship more than once, but must re-apply in each cycle in order to be considered, up to a maximum of three awards.  As a condition of the award, fellows are required to participate in activities designed to support their professional development as future faculty members, including the Graduate Fellows Learning Community, programming provided by the Office of Teaching and Learning and mentoring opportunities organized by the Graduate School.

Future Faculty Fellows are required, by signed agreement, to obtain and serve in a postsecondary faculty teaching or administrative position in apublic or private, 2- or 4-year, in-state or out-of-state, postsecondary institution for up to three (3) years equivalent full-time, dependent upon the amount of the Fellowship Award. A portion of this service obligation can be completed while the student earns their graduate degree. Fellows who do not fulfill the obligations of their Fellowship Agreement may be placed in default, which results in the Fellowship converting to a loan, referred to as a KCP Loan, which the Fellow must repay to the State of Michigan.  Detailed service credit guidelines and reporting forms can be found below. 

Administrative Service Pre-Approval Form Non-Traditional Service Pre-Approval Form Service Credit Guidelines Service Reporting Form

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be U.S. citizens and Michigan residents as defined by the university.
  • Applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program at Wayne State University.
  • Applicants must be academically or economically disadvantaged as defined by the State of Michigan. 
  • For full eligibility requirements, see KCP Initiative FFF Eligibility Requirements.

Note that as stated by university policy, Wayne State employees, i.e. persons providing a service to the university, are not eligible to receive fellowships.

Application

King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship application

The KCP application opens on Oct. 1 and closes March 31 each year. 

The State of Michigan will review all applications for eligibility, and forward eligible applications to the Graduate School for review.  A committee of Wayne State representatives will review and recommend candidates to the Dean of the Graduate School.  Final selections will be made on a competitive basis using criteria that include academic performance, research and teaching accomplishments and potential, demonstrated commitment to serving underrepresented students and those who have experienced academic or economic disadvantages, and faculty and advisor recommendations.

Fellowship decisions are not subject to appeal.

Before applying for or accepting any scholarship or fellowship, please consult with WSU Financial Aid regarding how such an award may affect your financial aid package, including loan eligibility.

Questions?

Contact Karen Schramm, coordinator, KCP Future Faculty Program | 313-577-8053, k.schramm@wayne.edu

Keep in touch

Please let us know what you will be doing after you receive your degree. Fellows must notify us and the KCP Initiative Office of any change of address by emailing Karen Schramm, k.schramm@wayne.edu, and FutureFaculty@michigan.gov.

Thomas C. Rumble University Graduate Fellowships

The Thomas Rumble Fellowship aims to optimize Ph.D. students' performance by providing support for and establishing expected outcomes at each stage of the training process. The fellowship has been expanded and reorganized to provide support in two categories: the Rumble Fellowship Award and the Rumble Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) based on departmental appointment and student financial aid and employment status. Both Rumble Fellowship categories provide a stipend of $20,000 for the academic year in addition to a tuition scholarship that provides payment of 7.5 10 credits for each of the fall and winter semesters at the effective tuition rate. The fellowship provides subsidized medical, vision and dental insurance. See details in the document below.

Eligibility

  • Fellowship eligibility and recipients are determined by individual departments. See the application details below on expected outcomes and measurement of success for recipients in each category.
  • As stated by university policy, Wayne State employees, i.e. persons providing a service to the university, are not eligible to receive fellowships.

Application

Before applying for or accepting any scholarship or fellowship, please consult with WSU Financial Aid regarding how such an award may affect your financial aid package, including loan eligibility.

Goal

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) emphasizes the need for best practices in recruitment, retention and completion in order to ensure quality doctoral education and training. A best practice highlighted in CGS reports includes financial support to optimize student performance during each step of this training pathway. The Rumble fellowship program thus aims to optimize Ph.D. students’ performance by providing support as well as establishing expected outcomes for each stage of their training process.  Recipients of the Rumble award may hold employment within the University up to 10 hours per week with prior written permission using the Request for Approval of an Additional Service Assignment form.

  1. Recruitment: In order to enhance the quality of Ph.D. student, Recruitment Rumble Fellowships will provide funding to outstanding students newly recruited to graduate programs at WSU.  Conditional on the student’s satisfactory performance in the first year, departments are required to provide at least one additional year of support.
  2. Development of Research and Scholarship: Development Rumble Fellowships will be used to develop the skills of Ph.D. students who demonstrate the most promise for conducting research and scholarship leading to a high-quality dissertation.  These awards may be made to students between their 2nd and 5th year of a work in a Ph.D. program. The fellowship year should be used by the awardees to pursue research that can lead to presentations at professional conferences, peer-reviewed publications, and extramural fellowship, scholarship or grant submissions to national funding agencies.
  3. Completion: Completion Rumble Fellowships will be used to encourage promising Ph.D. students to complete high-quality dissertations in a timely manner. Completion Rumble Fellowship nominees and their advisors must anticipate completion within one year of the award.  The student may not have received a prior Dissertation Fellowship award or have been enrolled in a Ph.D. program for longer than 7 years.
  4. All of the above Rumbles can also be offered as a Rumble GRA.

Allocation of Rumble Fellowships and Rumble GRAs

The primary, though not only, criterion for the allocation of Rumble Fellowships and Rumble GRAs to schools/colleges is Ph.D. productivity. Departmentalized schools and colleges will receive the Graduate School’s departmental distribution information and will be required to follow these distributions, unless they submit a written justification, for academic or strategic reasons, to the Graduate School for modifying the distribution.  

Fellowship components

  • Stipend of $20,000 for the academic year (bi-weekly checks mid- August 2024 through mid-May 2025). Tuition scholarship that provides payment of 7.5-10 credits for each of the fall and winter semesters, unless in maintenance status. Note that the scholarship will pay only for credits that are or are expected to be on the student’s Plan of Work.
  • Subsidized medical, vision and dental insurance for 12 months (September through August) an estimated value of $6,329.

Deadline for Graduate School notification

As of the 2024-25 award cycle, there are now two deadlines for Rumble decisions.  This is to allow for timely offers of Rumbles that are being used for recruitment of students who are new to a program.  For Recruitment Rumbles, the Graduate School must be notified of decisions by March 1, 2024.   Recipients of the recruitment offers must accept or decline by April 15, 2023. If an award is declined, the department and unit will have the opportunity to extend the offer to another student (in any category – recruitment or otherwise). All other Rumbles must be submitted no later than May 15, 2024 by the units receiving the awards so that offers may be made to current students in a timely manner.  Submissions received after the May 15, 2024 date will not be awarded. 

Expected outcomes and measurement of success for Rumble Fellowship recipients

The expected outcomes for recipients of all three Fellowship categories are outlined below. At the conclusion of the fellowship award year, but no later than June 30 of the fellowship year, the unit’s Graduate Director must provide to the Graduate School documentation of outcomes for each fellowship recipient, as per the criteria listed for each category. Failure to provide this documentation by this deadline will result in withholding of future fellowships for that department. The documentation should be send to Karen Schramm k.schramm@wayne.edu.          

Recruitment: Recipients of the Recruitment Fellowships are expected to have:

  1. Received a departmental annual review, which includes milestones towards completion of the Ph.D., such as the Plan of Work, Qualifying Examinations, etc.
  2. Prepared an application for an external fellowship, where appropriate

Development of Research and Scholarship: Recipients of the Development of Research and Scholarship Fellowships are expected to have:

  1. Received a departmental annual review, which includes milestones towards completion of the Ph.D., such as Plan of Work, Qualifying Examinations, Research Proposal preparation, etc.
  2. Made at least one presentation at a professional conference.
  3. Submitted a minimum of one manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal, OR
  4. Submitted  a minimum of one fellowship application to an approved peer-reviewed external funding agency or program.

Completion:  Recipients of the Completion Fellowships are expected to have:

  1. Completed the doctoral degree within 12 months following completion of the fellowship period.
  2. Received a departmental annual review, which includes milestones towards completion of the PhD, such as completion summary, proposal, dissertation defense plans, etc.
  3. Made at least one presentation at a professional conference.
  4. Presented results of their research at the Graduate School’s annual Graduate Research Symposium.
  5. Submitted a minimum of one manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal, OR
  6. Submitted  a minimum of one fellowship application to an approved peer-reviewed external funding agency or program.