Financial Aid

Graduate Scholar Award

Amount: Tuition waiver for up to 30 credit hours
Deadline: March 1
Audience: Graduate (Domestic), Graduate (International)

Purpose

The purpose of the Graduate Scholar Award is to provide financial support in the form of tuition waivers to academically qualified individuals underrepresented in master's-level graduate programs and/or academic disciplines. There are up to 15 awards available each year.

For the purposes of this award, "underrepresented" refers to any individual who identifies with one or more cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, sexual orientation, or disability group that has been historically underrepresented in a graduate program or academic discipline.

Eligibility

• Be members of groups nationally underrepresented in desired discipline and/or within the SIUE graduate program
• Applicants must be one of the following:
  
  
  •  A fully admitted new graduate student who is accepted as a classified student in a master's graduate degree program at SIUE and whose first term of enrollment will be no earlier than the summer preceding the fall award period (in the event that a student applies to multiple graduate programs at SIUE, the student must be fully admitted to the program indicated on the GSA application).  Students who have completed a prior graduate program at SIUE are not eligible to apply.  (Although a completed program application is required to be considered for the GSA, students with a pending admission decision are eligible to apply.)
    
    
  •  A SIUE undergraduate student approved for admission to and currently enrolled in an approved combined bachelor to master's program (accelerated or early entry program) provided they will be fully admitted to the graduate program before the first term of the award period. (Note that this requirement includes having completed the baccalaureate degree.) 
    
    
  • A previously-enrolled graduate student who has been out of their program for at least 4 semesters at the time of the GSA application.
• SIUE employees and State of Illinois Civil Service employees at other universities are not eligible for the award
• Currently-enrolled SIUE undergraduate student workers are eligible to apply provided they meet the above requirements
• Have at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA on a 4.0 scale for undergraduate and previous graduate courses

All eligible candidates are encouraged to apply.

Award

The Graduate Scholar Award is a waiver of tuition for up to a maximum of two academic terms for a maximum of 15 credit hours per term. The tuition waivers must be used within four terms of earning the award (summer, fall, spring, summer).  The award can be received only once and used for only one graduate degree. Award recipients are not eligible to receive a subsequent award if pursuing another degree. Recipients are responsible for fees.

Application

The Graduate Scholar Award Application site will open January 15 and close March 1. In the application, students will respond to the below two essay questions:

• Describe how you are underrepresented in your desired graduate program or academic discipline.  (For the purposes of this award, “underrepresented” refers to any individual who identifies with one or more cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, sexual orientation, or disability group that has been historically underrepresented in a graduate program or academic discipline.)
• How would your experiences as an underrepresented group in your field of study promote diversity of views, experiences, and ideas in the pursuit of research, scholarship, and creative experiences? 

Selection

Applications will be selected based upon the following factors according to the GSA Rubric:

• Applicant description of how they satisfy the requirement of being underrepresented in the desired SIUE graduate program and/or academic discipline
• Applicant’s description of how they will promote diversity of views, ideas, and experiences in the program and/or discipline
• Applicant's enhancement of diversity to the program and/or discipline
• Overall quality of applicant’s writing in application responses

Award acceptance will be required no later than April 15, or the award will be forfeited.

Conditions

Recipients must be enrolled in at least 3 graduate hours each term of the award and must maintain at least a 3.0 GPA throughout the award period. A recipient is unable to hold a graduate assistantship or Competitive Graduate Award at the same time. If a recipient fails to comply with these conditions, the Graduate School may revoke the award.

Release of Information

In order to comply with the University’s Tuition Waiver Policy, all students applying for or receiving a tuition waiver must sign a Release of Information Form.