Green MSU Spartan helmet

Graduate School PhD/MFA
Degree Completion Fellowships

This fellowship provides a stipend of $10,000 to support the student for one semester in academic year 2023-24 (FS23 SS24, US24).

  • College application deadline (individual program deadlines are earlier): Monday, February 26, 2024.
  • Students should note that they must apply through their programs, which may have earlier deadlines.
  • Fellowship Information and Nomination Form

Summer College Research Abroad Monies (SCRAM)

The College of Arts & Letters offers fellowships up to $3,000 each intended for students in the latter stages of degree completion whose research requires significant use of facilities, sources, or resources abroad.

  • Support is for travel during the summer semester. Preference will be given to applications demonstrating that the research trip will accelerate degree completion and significantly add to the quality of the applicant’s composition, performance, creative activity, thesis, dissertation or document.
  • Contact your unit for nomination procedures. College deadline is Friday, March 1, 2024.
  • SCRAM Information and Nomination Form

Support for Conference and Research Travel

The College of Arts & Letters provides up to $350 per graduate student per year toward expenses of travel to conferences: Travel Funding Guidelines.

Summer Support Fellowship

With support from with the Graduate School, the College of Arts & Letters makes summer funding available in the form of Summer Support Fellowships. These awards go to students to support scholarship and creative activity that enhances degree progress.

Varg-Sullivan Awards

The College of Arts & Letters offers two Varg-Sullivan Awards:

  • Outstanding Achievement in the Arts
  • Outstanding Achievement in the Letters 

Paul Varg and Richard Sullivan are former Deans of the College of Arts & Letters who dedicated their professional lives to excellence in the College. This award endowment was established in their name. Graduate students in the College of Arts & Letters are eligible to be nominated for the award by their major unit. Recipients are selected based on best performance/exhibition at a national or international event in the Arts and best presentation at a national or international event or best published article in the Letters.

Department and Program Grants

Individual departments and graduate programs allocate small fellowships/grants to their students to support their research and professional development. Graduate students may ask their advisors and/or the directors of their programs about relevant qualifications and procedures.

Each Graduate Program has a Handbook that comprehensively describes all program requirements, resources, policies and procedures, and common practices. The handbooks can be accessed from the department or program website.

Other Resources