As a premier land grant institution with global impact, graduate students are at the heart of what we do. Recruiting, retaining, and graduating the very best and brightest graduate students is a top priority and why the Graduate College provides support to students and academic programs in two ways.
The first is through Graduate College fellowships and travel funding. These awards help academic programs create competitive funding packages to attract, enroll, and retain top students. They also aid research and degree completion by offering financial support at critical moments during a student’s course of study.
The second way we help graduate students fund their education is through our external fellowship resources, including our Fellowship Finder database, proposal writing workshops, online resources, and one-on-one proposal review. We work diligently to help graduate students secure funding from external funding sources.
Illinois graduate students are highly competitive. We are proud to have over 140 graduate students hold Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, one of the largest fellowship programs in the nation. We are equally proud of the many students who have won awards from myriad other funding agencies, such as Google, Fulbright, and the Smithsonian Institution, to name only a few.
You will see several award-winning graduate students and alumni on the pages of our Fellowship Brochure. The Graduate College enjoys working with departments to help secure financial assistance for our students, and we look forward to even greater success in this increasingly important endeavor.
For more information about Graduate College Fellowships, see: www.grad.illinois.edu/fellowship/competitions