Semester-long dissertation completion fellowships will again be available in spring 2027 for PhD students who are making good progress toward the degree and who can provide a compelling statement about their research completion timeline. The stipend for the spring semester will be $21,218 distributed from January 2027 – May 2027. Preference will be given to students in the later stages of their careers, and funds will only be available to students with no remaining fellowship support. Students who receive a Dissertation Completion Fellowship will be expected to defend their dissertation within a year of receiving the fellowship.
Programs will submit the information below to the Graduate School for their candidates. For a copy of the signature page template, please click here. Please note that students will not apply to the Graduate School directly, but rather to their program who will then nominate them via this application site.
The call for nominations for spring 2027 will be due to the Graduate School Monday, October 12, 2026 at 11:59pm. Programs may nominate one candidate per POST. The application for the fellowship includes the following:
- A description of the student’s dissertation, which should demonstrate the project’s contribution to the field and its grounding in relevant scholarship and methodology. The proposal should make a compelling statement about the planned work and be accessible to scholars in a broad range of fields. The research area/dissertation description submitted by the candidate to the PhD program should be in 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced with 1” margins, numbered pages, and a header on every page that includes the student’s name and title of the dissertation 500-1,000 words).
- A curriculum vitae
- Summary of progress and plans for degree completion, including dates of screening, qualifying exams and anticipated dissertation defense, listed in a table format
- Brief summary of funding to date. For example, dates of internal and external fellowships, RA and/or TA appointments, listed in a table format
- USC unofficial transcript or STARs report (scanned documents are acceptable).
- Signature page signed by the student’s dissertation advisor, department chair, and Dean or Dean’s proxy affirming that the student is making satisfactory progress to the degree.
- One letter of recommendation provided by a faculty member in the student’s home program uploaded as a PDF document by the program’s designated nominator
USC Graduate School Dean's Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Semester-long dissertation completion fellowships will again be available in spring 2027 for PhD students who are making good progress toward the degree and who can provide a compelling statement about their research completion timeline. The stipend for the spring semester will be $21,218 distributed from January 2027 – May 2027. Preference will be given to students in the later stages of their careers, and funds will only be available to students with no remaining fellowship support. Students who receive a Dissertation Completion Fellowship will be expected to defend their dissertation within a year of receiving the fellowship.
Programs will submit the information below to the Graduate School for their candidates. For a copy of the signature page template, please click here. Please note that students will not apply to the Graduate School directly, but rather to their program who will then nominate them via this application site.
The call for nominations for spring 2027 will be due to the Graduate School Monday, October 12, 2026 at 11:59pm. Programs may nominate one candidate per POST. The application for the fellowship includes the following:
- A description of the student’s dissertation, which should demonstrate the project’s contribution to the field and its grounding in relevant scholarship and methodology. The proposal should make a compelling statement about the planned work and be accessible to scholars in a broad range of fields. The research area/dissertation description submitted by the candidate to the PhD program should be in 12-point Times New Roman, single-spaced with 1” margins, numbered pages, and a header on every page that includes the student’s name and title of the dissertation 500-1,000 words).
- A curriculum vitae
- Summary of progress and plans for degree completion, including dates of screening, qualifying exams and anticipated dissertation defense, listed in a table format
- Brief summary of funding to date. For example, dates of internal and external fellowships, RA and/or TA appointments, listed in a table format
- USC unofficial transcript or STARs report (scanned documents are acceptable).
- Signature page signed by the student’s dissertation advisor, department chair, and Dean or Dean’s proxy affirming that the student is making satisfactory progress to the degree.
- One letter of recommendation provided by a faculty member in the student’s home program uploaded as a PDF document by the program’s designated nominator