University of Minnesota Graduate School

Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships — Academic Year 2008-09

Instructions to the Nominating Program

            DEADLINE :            12 Noon, Friday, March 14, 2008
Graduate Fellowship Office, 314 Johnston Hall,
East Bank Campus — in five sets of each nomination

            RESULTS:                Notification directly to the DGS by mid-May

Program Description:  The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) program is intended to give outstanding final-year Ph.D. candidates an opportunity to complete the dissertation during the 2008-09 academic year by devoting full-time effort to research and writing.  The award includes a stipend of $22,000 for the academic year beginning September 2008, academic-year tuition for up to 14 thesis credits each semester, and subsidized health insurance through the graduate assistant plan.  Summer 2009 health insurance will be included for eligible Fellows not graduated by spring 2009.

Eligibility:  Programs may nominate Ph.D. candidates who have an approved degree program on file at the Graduate School, who will have passed the written and oral preliminary examinations by the nomination deadline, and who will have completed all program coursework by the end of spring semester 2008 (i.e., they may be registered for program coursework in spring 2008).  Students are ineligible if they have incompletes in official program coursework from a prior term showing on the transcript at the time of the deadline. 

           The award is intended for students who, typically, will be entering their fifth or sixth year of graduate study, having entered the Graduate School in fall 2003 or later with a bachelor’s degree (or 2005 or later with a master’s degree).  Nominees who entered before this date are eligible, but the nominating program must provide an explanation of individual circumstances that led to a lengthier program of study, in order to establish the student’s record of good progress. 

           It is strongly recommended that candidates have a thesis proposal on file at the Graduate School by the deadline.  Also, it is expected that Fellows will graduate by the end of spring 2009, but not later than the end of fall 2009.  Students who would graduate later should be nominated in another year.  Previous recipients of this award are ineligible.

             Terms of Award:  Dissertation Fellows must be registered for thesis credits in the Graduate School each semester in 2008-09.  Tuition for coursework is not covered, since program coursework is complete, and Fellows are expected to devote full time to the dissertation research.  Fellows may hold a supplemental appointment of up to the value of a 25 percent graduate assistantship in the student’s department in each semester.  The award may not supplement, in full or in part, another full-support internal or external award.  Awards may not be deferred beyond the original award period.  The awards of Fellows who graduate mid-year will be pro-rated.

Nominating Procedures:  Programs should establish internal deadlines and fair selection procedures to select the nominee(s) from all eligible candidates.  The number of nominations the program may submit is limited to the number of nominations it has remaining after nominating for the Graduate School Fellowship competition in January.  All forms required for nomination are available at:
http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/forms/

           The enclosed poster is intended for publicity in your departmental offices.  After selecting your nominee(s), please provide them with the Nominee’s Application Form, available at: http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/ddf/DDFNomineeApplication2008.doc.

           The official nomination for each candidate must be submitted electronically via the web at: [site available after March 1].
Note  the “s” in https in the URL.

            After transmitting the official nomination electronically (no need to print it out), transmit five sets of the following, stapled in the upper left-hand corner, in this order:

1. Program Nomination Checklist (copy enclosed;  also available at http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/ddf/DDFCheckList2008.doc)

• Nominee’s Application form (copy enclosed; also available at http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/ddf/DDFNomineeApplication2008.doc)
• Director of Graduate Studies' Nomination Evaluation Statement (copy enclosed; online version must be completed, available at  http://www.grad.umn.edu/fellowships/ddf/DDFevaluation2008.doc)
• Personal statement (instructions next page)
• Research proposal (instructions next page)
• Copy of the official degree program (up to date, with all grades posted)
• Transcript from each college or university attended (photocopies acceptable, including U of M transcripts - web version available at )
• Two recommendations, one of which is from the adviser and one of which is not; co-advisers may co-author one letter, (letters limited to one page, must be attached to the recommendation form).

            The Nomination Evaluation from the DGS :  While an important component in the overall presentation of the nomination, the DGS evaluation should not constitute a third letter of recommendation and should not quote extensively from the nominee’s supporting  letters.  Rather, it should assist the Fellowship Committee in evaluating the file from the vantage point of the broad discipline, by addressing the following five points, with these sub-headings in the online format:

• The nominee's research and potential impact: 
• the nominee’s independent and original contribution to the research,
• the significance and potential impact of the research, in the context of the entire field, and
• the likelihood that the nominee will become influential in the discipline (i.e., impact on field; leadership potential).

• The nominee's publication record, described in terms of the norms for the discipline:
• Explain which publications resulted from current doctoral research.
• Compare the nominee’s publication record with other students at this stage in this field.
• Describe the quality and standing (impact) of the journals in which the nominee has published.
• Explain the discipline’s convention for listing authorship (i.e., primary author first, authors alphabetical, or other).  If not addressed in supporting letters, explain the overall impact of the nominee’s published work.

• The non-expert method used to critique the nominee’s research statement to assure that it is free of jargon and completely understandable to persons outside the field (see ‘Research Proposal’ below).
•  
• Progress, status, and schedule: 
• An explanation of individual circumstances for the nomination of a pre-fall 2003 (or 2005 with Master’s) Graduate School entry, if relevant (see ‘Eligibility’ section).  Examples include seasonal field studies that lengthen the period of research, family illness, change of adviser, etc.  A generic explanation, such as ‘most students in the program teach,’ is insufficient.
• The status of the thesis proposal, if not yet filed with the Graduate School, along with a description of the program's procedure for thesis proposal review and approval.
• The status of any incomplete non-program coursework.
• Confirmation that the student's expected graduation date is realistic, and that there are no conflicting dates stated (in student’s statement, adviser’s letter, etc.).

• A brief summary of the program's selection procedures, including the size of the eligible candidate pool and the decision process.  If the nominees are rank-ordered, include a description of the process, and the basis, for the ranking.

           The Personal Statement:  This statement of no more than one page, written by the student, should provide an account of the various sources, influences, and previous efforts that led to the choice of academic discipline and research area, while filling in any gaps in the record.  It should offer a picture of the student’s motivation and purpose as well as a description of long-range personal and professional plans and goals.  It should not be an extension of the Research Proposal section.

            The Research Proposal:  The research proposal — limited to three pages — must be written by the student, representing the student's own thinking.  All specialized terminology must be defined.  With faculty reviewers drawn from many different fields across the University, the proposal—except for the methodology section—must be written in plain English that is clear and unambiguous, so that the proposal is accessible to readers completely outside the discipline. Nonetheless, the intellectual underpinnings of the research and its significance must come through.

[Note:  The DGS or the nominee must have the proposal reviewed and critiqued by persons completely outside the field and unfamiliar with the discipline to assure that it meets the wide-audience test of accessibility. Many nominees have been rejected in past years because their proposals contained undefined specialized words and dense syntax, making their research completely incomprehensible to reviewers.  As part of the nomination process, the DGS is required to explain the non-expert review method used.]

            The proposal must be presented — with type size not smaller than 12 points and margins not less than one inch — in seven sections, not to exceed three pages, identified by these sub-headings:

• Dissertation Title (centered and bolded, at top of first page).
• Background. This section should provide a brief overview of the research, placing it in the context of previous research in the field, identifying deficiencies in understanding that logically complement the objectives.

• Goals and objectives.
•  
• Design and methodology.  This section, which may be more technical, should be  detailed enough so that reviewers can judge whether the research design is sound.
•  
• Potential significance of the research.  This section should answer the question, "So what?"   What important new knowledge will be obtained, what substantive questions will be answered, and what is the relevance of the research in the larger context to the needs of science, technology, the arts, or society?
•  
• Progress to date and schedule for completion. 
•  
• Key references.

Review and Selection Criteria:  The review will be conducted by the Graduate Fellowship Committee, composed of sixteen faculty members from across the University.  Each nomination will be independently reviewed and rated by four faculty members drawn from different disciplines.  At least one of the four reviewers will come from the same broad disciplinary area as the nomination, such as biology or social sciences.  For example, a nomination from a social science program might be reviewed by a four-member panel of faculty from anthropology, computer science, education, and history.  Clearly, the nomination must be reasonably comprehensible to all individuals in this diverse a review panel — especially since all reviewers have an equal voice in the final decision. 

       The Committee will select recipients based on the following criteria: 

• the importance of the research and the clarity with which it is conveyed to the non-specialist;
• the potential for the research to make an unusually significant contribution to the field;
• the degree to which the research shows the student's independence, originality, and  resourcefulness;
• the potential for the student to become an influential leader in the overall discipline;
• the design and soundness of the methodology;
• the comparative strength of the academic record;
• the publication record and its significance, in the context of norms for the field;
• the timeliness of progress toward the degree; and
• the clarity and coherence of the program’s presentation.

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University of Minnesota Graduate School Fellowship Office, 314 Johnston Hall—East Bank Campus
telephone:  612-625-7579, e-mail:  gsfellow@umn.edu