Application Deadline: May 19, 2025
LOCATION: USA
The purpose of the Provost’s Distinguished Fellowship/Scholarship program is to support programs in the recruitment of OSU’s most meritorious graduate students. Newly admitted (i.e. for the 2025-2026 academic year) doctoral students, and newly admitted master’s students in degree programs where a Ph.D. degree does not exist at OSU, are eligible for nomination for either award. Recipients may receive either a Provost Fellowship or a Provost Scholarship but may not receive both.
ELIGIBILITY:
All Provost Fellowship and Scholarship recipients must meet the minimum selection criteria outlined below. Colleges may develop additional criteria specific to their disciplines and are encouraged to do so. At a minimum, all Provost Award recipients must:
Be degree-seeking, regularly-admitted (i.e., not conditionally or provisionally admitted), and accepted through OSU’s electronic DAF system.
Be a newly admitted (i.e. for the 2025-2026 academic year) doctoral student or a newly admitted master’s student in a degree program where a Ph.D. degree does not exist at OSU.
Students who successfully completed a previous degree within the same program are eligible if their continuation to another degree meets with the spirit and intent of recruiting new graduate students.
In these cases, the student must have submitted a new application for admission or a Change of Degree to add the new degree. These documents must indicate an official start date of summer 2025 or fall 2025.
Please note that a student who has been readmitted to the same degree within the same degree program (e.g., after an unauthorized break in enrollment) is not considered a newly admitted student for purposes of this award.
Make satisfactory academic progress as a graduate student in the admitted degree program each term of the award, as defined by the Graduate School and the program.
Be poised to elevate the profile of graduate education at OSU given their outstanding academic and scholarly achievements and promise.
Evidence of this includes, but is not limited to, the student’s:
previous academic achievement demonstrated by standard metrics and more holistic measures;
scholarly promise evident through the student’s commitment to and persistence in previous academic pursuits, intellectual curiosity, as well as publications, presentations, and research grants;
scholarly distinction, including honors, awards, and other recognitions; and
record of leadership, including professional, community, and/or civic engagement.
Only those graduate programs that actively engage in holistic admissions are eligible to receive and distribute Provost funding. Active engagement must include, at a minimum:
evidence of a holistic approach in the program’s outward facing recruitment materials and communications with prospective students,
an application process carefully designed to elicit valuable information about a candidate’s strengths in a variety of dimensions,
a rubric for evaluating those strengths in several relevant areas, and
a collaborative method by which faculty and staff make final admissions decisions.
Distribution plans for Provost Fellowships and Scholarships will require confirmation as to which graduate programs are actively engaging in holistic admissions/are eligible, per the criteria outlined above, to receive Provost funds.
BENEFIT:
Provost’s funding is available for award in two formats: Fellowship or Scholarship.
As a Fellowship, the college will award the student:
12-month stipend including a matriculation (if applicable) and fee subsidy ($40,000 total for each doctoral student, $35,000 total for each master’s student), disbursed in four installments each term (Fall 2024, Winter 2025, Spring 2024, and Summer 2025).
An academic year tuition waiver.
Supplemental funds to cover the cost of enrollment in three graduate credits during the summer 2025 term.
In addition, the Graduate School will formally appoint recipients as OSU graduate fellows to allow access to subsidized health insurance under the prevailing graduate fellow health insurance plan.
As a Scholarship, the college will award the student a sum, disbursed in three equal installments. Individual Scholarship amounts may vary within a college and are at the discretion of the Dean but can be no less than $3,000 over the academic year and cannot exceed the full-time enrollment cost at resident tuition rates in the student’s respective college/program; currently $13,716 for full-time students in most colleges/programs.