Dissertation Completion Fellowship

College of Music Dissertation Completion Fellowship

Award:
• up to $10,000

Awardees:
• must be a doctoral student in the final stages of writing a dissertation, document, composition, or final lecture recital.
• must register for at least one credit during the semester in which they accept the award
• must demonstrate in the application materials their ability to complete the degree within one (1) calendar year of the application date

Current or past University Fellowship (UEF or UDF) awardees and students with full-time teaching positions are not eligible.

** Students with other scholarships or loans must check with the Office of Financial Aid to see if this award will affect their funding. The College of Music will not be responsible for any reductions in aid or penalties related to receipt of this award. **
Please note that receipt of this award does not require the student to give up a graduate assistantship or limit the amount of scholarship money the student may receive from the College.

Directions for applying

ALL materials to be submitted in ONE pdf (except for letters of recommendation—see below):

Application Sheet
Two letters of recommendation sent separately by each recommender as a pdf directly to musgrad@msu.edu
- One from your Primary Advisor or Guidance Committee Chair, that includes:
  - the applicant’s progress toward the degree,
  - the quality and significance of the project within the discipline or interdisciplinary area, andxaany additional information that would be useful to a review committee likely to be composed of faculty not specializing in the nominee’s area.
- One from a faculty member familiar with student’s work on this project.
Courses by term (from your student account) of nominee’s graduate record.
A curriculum vitae, not to exceed two pages, highlighting publications, performances, presentations, etc., and any special awards received.
A proposal of three double-spaced pages that includes a schematic overview of the dissertation or project.
- This overview should engage with the relevant literature on the topic. It must include citations referring to this body of work, and those citations should be in either Chicago, MLA, APA, or another officially recognized citation format according to the conventions of your academic field, and a bibliography of works cited should appear at the end of the proposal (this bibliography should be in alphabetical order according to author’s last name, and appear on a separate, fourth page)
- The language in this proposal needs to be persuasive. It is slightly different from your DMA document proposal/ lecture recital proposal in that respect. How will it impact the field of music? Try to answer the following questions:
  - WHY is the project important?
  - HOW will it change the field?
  - HOW are you challenging commonly held views?
  - HOW are you qualified to undertake this project?
  - Give an overview of the outline of the finished document/composition/lecture recital
An additional one-page timetable, providing completion dates for various stages of the project and for remaining degree requirements. Emphasize work to be completed during the fellowship semester.

Evaluation Criteria (Additional materials, beyond those listed above, will not be considered):
• quality and clarity of proposal,
• student record (GPA, DFs, courses taken, progress toward degree), and
• letters of recommendation.
• preference given to proposals that have already been accepted by the student’s guidance committee