Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation Fellowships

The Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation Fellowship provides financial support to advance outstanding graduate students in the completion of their doctoral research.  Fourteen full-year fellowships of $15,200 each are available for advanced doctoral students, with one fellowship allocated to each Ph.D.-granting Taft department for internal competition within the department. The remaining six fellowships are awarded through competitive selection at the Taft Student Awards Committee level across the Ph.D.- granting Taft Departments. The Taft Research Center provides a University Graduate Scholarship to accompany each fellowship that covers 12 credit hours per quarter (48 total for full-time status). Departments should be advised that students who will attain 260 graduate hours during the fellowship year are not eligible for UGS awards and, therefore, can not be considered for a Taft Dissertation Fellowship.


Application Procedures

All applications for the Dissertation Fellowship must be organized at the department level and then forwarded to Taft Office, ML 0369 by the published deadline. Late applications will not be considered.

Departments must provide a separate file for each recommended applicant. Each file must include the following information:

• Cover sheet completed by the director of graduate studies or other faculty member in charge of Taft Graduate Fellowship submissions.
• Research abstract (125 words)
• Project description (5 pages)
• The applicant's grade record
• 3 letters of support
• Submit six copies of each application.

Each department’s submission of files must be accompanied by a letter that states:

• The recommendation for the allocated Dissertation Fellowship.
• The rankings of the department's applicants for the Taft Committee-selected Dissertation Fellowship.

Departments are limited to 3 files: one for the allocated fellowship and up to two for Taft committee-selected fellowships. (See rules below about carrying over an allocated fellowship) .

Guidelines for the Selection of Taft Dissertation Fellows

The allocated fellowships are earmarked for superior graduate students who are relatively close to completion of their Ph.D. The primary prerequisite for serious consideration of all candidates is proof of significant progress toward the degree in the calendar year prior to the submission of the application. For students who are in the second year of dissertation work, this progress is usually established by the letters of recommendation of the student's advisor and other members of the dissertation committee. In particular, these letters should summarize what has been accomplished and what remains to be accomplished before the dissertation is considered completed. For students who are about to begin a dissertation, significant progress toward the degree is established by completion of preliminary examination and by letters of recommendation. In exceptional circumstances, awards may be made contingent on satisfactory completion of Ph.D. examinations by the end of Spring quarter.  In addition, in both cases the grades in formal courses, the length of time of graduate study, and the departmental rank of the student are important considerations in the evaluation process.

The allocated Dissertation Fellowship is intended for the best advanced student within a Taft Department. Candidates who have had, or currently have, a Taft Dissertation award will not be eligible for another dissertation award unless there are no other qualified candidates from the entire competitive award category. Departments may carry-over their allocated award for up to one year if there is no student that meets department and Taft selection criteria for the Dissertation Fellowship, but may not provide more than two allocated awards in a given academic year. In years in which two allocated awards are made, departments may still forward up to two applicants for consideration in the competitive pool.

The Taft Graduate Fellowship Committee has the right to review and revise the department's selection when the evidence suggests that an individual in the pool of Taft Committee-selected candidates is superior to the one which the department has recommended for the allocated Fellowship. However, the student nominated for the allocated fellowship may be replaced by another nominee of the department only after consultation with the department's head or director of graduate studies.  In case of equally well-qualified candidates, priority will be given to candidates who have not previously held a Taft Dissertation Fellowship.  Prior and current holders of the Charles Phelps Taft Dissertation Fellowship must submit, along with their application, a statement of their accomplishments during their Taft Fellowship year (s).

The Taft Committee may rank alternates for fellowships beyond the six initial awards. When a student rejects a Taft Committee-selected fellowship, this fellowship is offered to the highest ranked alternate remaining on the Committee’s alternate list. When a student rejects an allocated fellowship, this fellowship is awarded to the next highest ranked student of the department. If the latter individual has already been awarded a Committee-selected fellowship, then this fellowship becomes the allocated fellowship and the open Committee-selected fellowship is offered to the next ranked individual on the remaining alternate list. This procedure is necessary for fairness to the individuals on the alternate list, and it maintains the principle that the allocated fellowship is awarded to the best advanced student in the department.

Responsibilities of Taft Dissertation Fellows

1. Taft Fellows may not engage in any form of paid employment, including teaching, during the period of their fellowship. In the case in which a Fellow will defend and graduate in August and has the opportunity to teach in the summer quarter, the Fellow may petition the Faculty Chair for an exception. For those Fellows who are able to defend and graduate in June, the summer portion of the UGS will be cancelled and the remaining stipend will be paid in full before graduation. Fellows must inform the Taft Faculty Chair during Winter Quarter that they will graduate in June, so that these arrangements can be put in place.

2. During the spring quarter of the fellowship period, each recipient of a Taft Dissertation Fellowship has to write a brief (one page maximum) progress report describing his/her scholarly activities. The report must be submitted by April 30 to the chair of the Taft Committee on Graduate Fellowships and must be signed by both the student and his/her major academic advisor.

3. Taft Dissertation Fellows will meet during the year with the Taft Faculty Chair in a colloquium session and will present their research at the annual Taft Research Symposium held the first week of May each year. Dissertation Fellows must notify the Taft Chair if research needs prevent them from attending any of the colloquium meetings.

Reporting

Each department must report annually the status of all previous Fellowship recipients. For each recipient, this reporting should continue as long as the student remains in the department. The final reporting for a student should indicate their final degree status and (when known) where they went after leaving.