Scholarships and University Fellowships
University Fellowships
A limited number of University fellowships may be awarded to outstanding students in the doctoral programs. These carry a generous stipend, health insurance, and full tuition remission. University Fellows are not expected to provide services beyond those appropriate to the completion of their degree requirements. Students do not directly apply to the Graduate School for these awards; nominations are made in early spring to the Dean of the Graduate School by either the Chair or Director of Graduate Studies of departments granting the doctorates. Students who wish to be considered for fellowships should abide by the graduate program's deadline for submitting application materials.
Graduate Assistantships
Graduate teaching, research, and service assistantships are available to qualified students in most graduate programs. The purpose of a graduate assistantship is to provide experience and training that augment a student's academic program, and assistantships are awarded on an individual basis according to the needs of the department, professor or project. The department Chair or Graduate Program Director will attempt to place a student in an assistantship believed to best serve the career training objective of the student. Although a student is free to make known a preference for a particular placement, the final decision is the prerogative of the department in which the student is enrolled.
Students do not directly apply for these awards; the individual graduate program selects the student(s) for an assistantship offer. Applicants who are interested in being considered for assistantships should contact to the Chair or Graduate Program Director of the department to which they are applying for admission, stating their desire to be appointed as a graduate assistant. The award of an assistantship is competitive; students who hope to be considered should present credentials that are well above the minimum required for admission. The distribution of assistantships across departments may differ from year to year.
Graduate assistantships must include a stipend (minimum $1,300 per month for master’s students; doctoral stipends vary by discipline), student health insurance and full tuition. The duration of funding and conditions to maintain the assistantship should be outlined in the student’s letter of award. The duration of funding for which these appointments are renewable and depends on the department, although the university typically provides (or guarantees) four years of funding to doctoral students, two to master's, and three for master of fine arts students who continue to make progress toward the degree; the university-wide maximums for this type of university sponsored financial support are six years for doctoral students, three for master’s students, and four for master of fine arts students.
Funded Student Non-Resident Tuition Exception
It is the policy of the University of Louisville that non-resident graduate students who are funded with a full stipend, health insurance and tuition are coded as “residents” for tuition purposes only. As long as a non-resident graduate student receives a full stipend whose funding source (for stipend, tuition, and health care) is through a university account (e.g., university funded assistantships and fellowships, but also grants, contracts, endowments), the student’s tuition will be billed at the resident rate.
Funded non-resident students remain non-residents for all purposes other than tuition. If a student loses funding for whatever reason (including that their contract is not renewed), they will be switched to “non-resident” for the purposes of tuition as well; if they switch graduate programs or apply to a professional program where they are not funded, they will be considered “non-resident” for the purposes of tuition.
Accepting and Declining an Offer of Financial Support
As a member of the Council of Graduate Schools in the United States, the University of Louisville subscribes to the Resolution Regarding Scholars, Fellows, Trainees, and Graduate Assistants:
Acceptance of an offer of financial support* (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties.
Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and subsequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student to first inform the program that they are withdrawing or resigning from the offer of financial support that they previously had accepted. Starting in Fall 2020, applicants are no longer required to obtain a formal release from the program whose offer they accepted, either before or after the April 15 deadline. It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above Resolution that a copy of this Resolution or a link to the URL should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, and assistantship offer.
