CAS Provost Fellowship/Scholarship Nominations

Provost Fellowship/Scholarship Overview

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 doctoral students, and newly admitted master’s students in degree programs where a Ph.D. 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. Graduate students pursuing a certificate only are ineligible for nomination.

  • As a Provost Fellowship, the recipient is awarded a one‐time 12‐month stipend, disbursed in four equal installments; an academic year tuition waiver; supplemental funds to cover the cost of enrollment in three graduate credits during the following summer term, and subsidized health insurance.
  • As a Provost Scholarship, the recipient is awarded a sum, disbursed in three equal installments over one year. Scholarships may be offered in conjunction with a graduate assistantship or a fellowship (excluding Provost Fellowships), but neither is a requirement for receiving a Provost Scholarship.

Graduate Program Eligibility

Graduate programs offering doctoral degrees, or graduate programs offering research and creative master’s degrees where a Ph.D. degree does not exist, are eligible for Provost’s Distinguished Fellowship and Scholarship awards.

Graduate Program Directors or Department Heads may submit one nomination per graduate major for the Provost’s Distinguished Graduate Fellowship awards and two nominations per graduate major for the Provost’s Distinguished Graduate Scholarship funding. Programs may request awards only for newly admitted students who will be enrolling in an OSU graduate program for the upcoming academic year. Funding for both domestic and international nominees will be considered.

Funding Format Details

Provost’s funding is available for award in two formats: (1) Fellowship or (2) Scholarship.

  1. As a Fellowship, the college will award the student a one‐time 12‐month stipend, academic year tuition waiver, and supplemental funds to cover the cost of enrollment in three graduate credits during summer term. The Graduate School will formally appoint recipients as OSU graduate fellows to allow access to subsidized health insurance under the prevailing graduate assistant/fellow health insurance plan. Because Fellows are not considered employees they only need to register for three credits during the summer.
  2. As a Scholarship, the college will award the student a one‐time sum. Units may offer scholarships in conjunction with a graduate assistantship or a fellowship (excluding Provost Fellowships), but neither is a requirement for receiving a Provost Scholarship. As such, Provost’s Scholarship funds are separate from and in additional to any financial support offered by the unit.

The Graduate School will disburse funds to student recipients at the beginning of the academic year. Term‐to‐term allocation is managed centrally and done so in conjunction with student enrollment requirements.

Student Eligibility and Minimum Selection Criteria

All Provost Fellowship and Scholarship recipients must meet the minimum selection criteria outlined below. At a minimum, all Provost Award recipients must:

  • Be degree‐seeking, regularly‐admitted, and accepted through OSU’s electronic Department Action Form (DAF) system.
  • Make satisfactory academic progress as a graduate student (GPA of 3.00) in the specified degree program for the duration of the award. Progress will be assessed each term.
  • Be poised to elevate the profile of graduate education at OSU given their academic and scholarly promise. Evidence of this may include, but is not limited to, the student’s:
  1. previous academic achievement demonstrated by GPA and timely completion and other related metrics;
  2. previous scholarly productivity, including publications, presentations, and research grants;
  3. scholarly distinction, including honors, awards, and other recognitions; and
  4. record of leadership, including professional, community, and/or civic engagement.

CAS Provost’s Awards Details

  • The College of Agricultural Sciences will award Provost’s Fellowships and Scholarships to high‐quality nominees that will elevate the profile of graduate education at OSU.
  • The Graduate School will disburse funds to student recipients at the beginning of the academic year. Term‐to‐term allocation is managed centrally and done so in conjunction with student enrollment requirements.
  • Students may not submit a nomination. All nominations must be submitted by a Department Head or Graduate Program Director to the College.
  • Departments must identify nominees and submit evidence of each nominee’s qualifications. Only nominees who are regularly‐admissible and have already been accepted through the electronic DAF system will be considered.

Provost’s Funding Proposal Submission Procedures for College of Agricultural Sciences

To be considered for a Provost’s Fellowship or Scholarship, CAS Department Heads, Chairs and/or Graduate Program Directors must complete the online nomination form for each nomination. The nomination form must include an upload of a single PDF document (file name: “student’s last name_program_provost_21‐22.pdf”) containing the following materials:

  1. Cover letter from nominating unit for each nominee – not to exceed two single‐spaced pages (12 point font – 1 inch margins; page limit excludes Appendices) including discussion of the nominee’s academic and scholarly promise. Nominators are encouraged to discuss the nominee’s previous academic achievement as evidenced by GPA and other related metrics; scholarly productivity of nominee, including publications, presentations, and research grants; scholarly distinction of the nominee, including honors, awards, and other recognitions; and record of leadership, including professional, community, and/or civic engagement. Nomination letters should specifically address all the evaluation criteria listed in this document for the award.
    1. Nominators should include appendix materials in support of the nominee including the nominee’s full OSU application with transcripts, personal statement, and resume/CV along with evidence of an accepted DAF.
    2. For Fellowship nominations, the letter must outline the plan for financially sustaining students who receive Provost’s funding through degree completion. Please note that the requested plan need not guarantee long‐term future funding as this may not be possible for all programs. In the case where this is not possible, programs should provide evidence of specific ways in which the program will work with students to help financially sustain their studies and timely degree completion (e.g., nominations for professional organization scholarships).
  2. Appendices

Information Needed for the Nomination Form

The nomination form will ask you to provide the following information.

  • Student Name
  • Academic Program
  • OSU ID Number
  • Current GPA

Nomination Form

Proposal Review and Selection

The Assistant Dean of Academic Programs will randomly assign subcommittees of the CAS Graduate Programs Advisory Committee to review and rank a subset of applications and the entire committee will make final selections from the top candidates identified by the subcommittees. Subcommittee members will not review nominations from their departments and during final selection, committee members will disclose potential conflicts of interest and may be recused from discussion of some finalist.

Committee members will review proposals independently using the criteria outlined in the requested materials stated earlier.

Evaluation Criteria

Nominee’s academic and scholarly promise as indicated by the following:

  1. Nominee’s previous academic achievement as evidence by GPA and other related metrics
  2. Nominee’s scholarly productivity
    1. Publications
    2. Presentations
    3. Research grants
    4. Honors and awards
    5. Record of leadership, including professional, community, and/or civic engagement
    6. Other measures of achievement
  3. The potential impact that an award would have on strengthening and building the degree program
  4. For Fellowship nominations, the quality of the plan for financially sustaining students who receive Provost’s funding through degree completion.