Cost and Financial Aid

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• The applicant must be in good academic standing and have an OU grade point average of 3.0 or better.
• The applicant must be enrolled during the semester they plan to travel or make research expenditures. Applicants are not required to be enrolled in the Summer semester in order to be eligible to receive funding for research/travel costs during the Summer semester. However, applicants should be enrolled in the following Fall semester. 
• Post-doctoral scholars are not eligible for these funds. 

TRAVEL GRANT

• The applicant must be an active presenter. Verification of the student’s presentation at the professional venue will be required before funds are disbursed.
• These funds may not be used to attend training workshops, short courses, field schools, or other types of events; apply instead for the Robberson and Wethington Scholarship.
• Travel to local or state meetings will not be supported from these funds. However, national conferences which happen to occur in Oklahoma are eligible for funding.
• Travel for research purposes (e.g., to visit archives, collect samples or conduct interviews) will not be supported from these funds; apply instead for a Research Grant.

RESEARCH GRANT

• These funds may be used to fund research-related expenses such as supplies, equipment, books, data sets, or travel related to the project.
• The funds may also be used to compensate research participants (e.g., gift cards), but the student will need to seek further approvals from the IRB, the student's academic unit, and follow OU Purchasing policies outlined by Financial Services.
• These funds may not normally be used to pay salaries, make dissertation copies, or fund publication costs.
• Travel to present research or creative activity will not be supported from these funds; apply instead for a Travel Grant.

SELECTION PROCESS

1. Applications will be reviewed by the Graduate Council’s Travel and Research Subcommittee during the three weeks after the deadline.
2. A notification letter will be sent to the applicant’s OU email address once decisions are made. Notifications of award (or that your application was not funded) will be made no later than three weeks following the application deadline (e.g., three weeks after the September 15th deadline).
3. Applicants awarded funding will be contacted by the Shared Business Services Center regarding processing of their award funds.  SBSC@ou.edu will be copied on your award notification letter. When necessary, the SBSC will work with your home department to allocate any charges over the amount of the travel grant (if applicable) to the appropriate account(s). For research grants, awards are often transferred to a departmental account for use.
4. If the awardee does not process the necessary paperwork to receive the funds within three months from the date they received the award, the grant funding will be forfeited. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• International doctoral students studying in the areas broadly defined as natural sciences, history, business, engineering, or mathematics are eligible.
• Domestic doctoral students in all fields are eligible.
• Post-doctoral scholars are not eligible for these funds.
• These funds may be used to fund expenses related to attending the training/courses such as course registration fees, books, or travel related to attending the training/courses. 
  
• Students are eligible for this award once per academic program and are not eligible for travel or research awards in the same year as they receive a scholarship (and vice versa).

Applicants for these funds must show evidence that the training/courses for which funding is requested will provide the following:

• Essential knowledge for the degree that cannot be obtained at OU.
• Significant networking opportunities that students would not benefit from in other ways.
• A significant impact on the student’s career and professional development.

Applicants for these funds:

• Must be in good academic standing and have an OU grade point average of 3.0 or better.

Additional Notes:

• Workshops and other courses connected or associated with conferences will not be considered for this award
• Applicants are required to consult with Associate Dean Ioana Cionea (icionea@ou.edu) before applying for this award.
•  Students may apply for trainings/courses that occur in the same semester as the application deadline, or that occur the semester following the deadline by which they are applying. We recommend that students apply in advance of the course, but this is not a requirement.

SELECTION PROCESS

1.  Applications will be reviewed by the Graduate Council’s Travel and Research Subcommittee during the three weeks after the deadline.
2. A notification letter will be sent to the applicant’s OU email address once decisions are made. Notifications of award (or that your application was not funded) will be made after the 10th of the month following the application deadline (e.g., Oct. 10th for a Sept 15th application deadline).
3. Applicants awarded funding will be contacted by the Shared Business Services Center regarding processing of their award funds.  SBSC@ou.edu will be copied on your award notification letter. 
4. If the awardee does not process the necessary paperwork to receive the funds within three months from the date they received the award, the grant funding will be forfeited. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• Regularly enrolled graduate students or benefits-eligible postdoctoral fellows at the University.
• Demonstrated quality of research through publications or academic accomplishments, as evaluated by the selection committee.
• Not the Donor or an immediate family member of the Donor.
• Student or postdoc must be presenting research at the conference.

In addition to the eligibility criteria, priority consideration will be given to:

• Those giving oral presentations.
• Graduate students and postdocs affiliated with the School of Biological Sciences, School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, School of Computer Science, the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences, and the College of Earth and Energy.
• The following conferences: International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME), American Society of Microbiology (ASM), Ecological Society of America (ESA), American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union (AGU), International Water Association (IWA), and ASCE-EWRI World Environmental and Water Resources Congress.

Applications will be submitted and reviewed through the Graduate College Travel and Research submission process. We encourage all eligible graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to apply for this opportunity. If the awardee does not process the necessary paperwork to receive the funds/be reimbursed within three months from the date they received the award, the grant funding will be forfeited. 

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

• Students may apply directly. They do not need to be nominated by their academic unit.
• At time of application, applicants must have completed the general exam and must hold a 0.50 FTE GTA or GRA appointment in their academic unit. 

NOMINATION PROCESS

Nomination materials must include:

• An application cover letter that highlights the academic and professional journey (this may also include information about alternate pathways in education/career, interdisciplinary endeavors, delays in completion, etc.).
• A one-page plan for completion which explains the structure of the dissertation, states which elements are complete, and offers a plan and schedule for completing the remaining elements.
• A letter of reference from the applicant’s major professor describing the scholarly significance and potential impact of the work. The letter should summarize the status of the project and offer a clear assessment of the applicant’s potential for completing the dissertation during the following academic year (e.g., the applicant is very likely to complete; the applicant has a reasonable prospect of completing; it is uncertain that the applicant will complete). The letter should also provide an estimate regarding the relative quality of the applicant’s project (e.g., is the project in the top 5%, 10%, or 15% of dissertations seen to date?). When the electronic application form is submitted, the major professor will receive an email requesting submission of the letter. 
• A current copy of the applicant’s curriculum vitae including information about research, service, and outreach activities if applicable.
• A short abstract of the dissertation (maximum two single-spaced pages) that explains the significance and impact of the work in terms accessible to a lay person.
• A sample of the applicant’s writing (maximum 10,000 words) that allows evaluation of the project. Co-authored work is acceptable if it presents the student’s original research. Work that has already been published is welcome.
• The applicant’s academic transcript.
• Please submit all materials in .PDF format.
  

SELECTION CRITERIA

• Scholarly significance and potential impact of the work, expressed in a way that conveys the importance of the work to a multidisciplinary faculty committee. (The committee favors projects that are innovative, high-impact and groundbreaking in nature. We welcome projects that address topics and perspectives historically underrepresented in the academy and/or that have potential impact in support of underserved communities.)
• Overall academic record and professional activity.
• Potential for completion of the dissertation during the award period.

The Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program strives to increase the number of graduate degrees awarded to students from low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented groups.

The program pairs academically-promising undergraduate scholars with graduate faculty mentors, who advise them as they develop, conduct, and publicly present original research projects.

The McNair Graduate Fellowship program encourages McNair Scholars who have successfully completed an undergraduate degree and who demonstrate high excellence to attend graduate school.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Departments with fewer than 10 doctoral degrees awarded during the calendar year of the prize can make one nomination; departments with 10 or more can nominate two.

Nomination materials should include:

• At least one letter of nomination, written for the non-specialist, which describes the quality, scholarly contributions, and disciplinary significance of the dissertation. The nomination must specify one of the three academic areas.
  
• A letter of endorsement from the department chairperson.
  
• The abstract that is included in the dissertation.
  
• The applicant's curriculum vitae.
• One copy of the dissertation in PDF format or a link to the open-access version in SHAREOK.
• The names of two potential readers for the dissertation. These readers must be OU faculty members in Norman-based programs who are not members of the nominee's department or committee.

SELECTION PROCESS

The Graduate Dean will constitute an ad hoc faculty committee charged with recommending to the Provost whether or not a nominated dissertation should be considered for a prize. The committee will be chaired by a member of the Graduate Council; the remaining membership will depend on the fields represented by the dissertations to be considered. The committee will use the submitted materials to assess the overall quality of the dissertation and its contribution to the discipline. The committee shall forward the recommendations to the Provost by April.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• The dissertation appears to be well written and well structured, using an appropriate method and suitably accountable to prior scholarship.
• The dissertation makes a novel contribution to scholarship worthy of publication.
• The dissertation has the potential for a significant impact on the scholarly discipline and/or on community well-being.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Any Norman Campus graduate student with teaching responsibilities is eligible, provided the student has not received this award in the last two years. The awards may be given to one student each year in each of the following three academic areas:

1. Science and Engineering
2. Social Sciences, Education, and the Professions
3. Humanities and Fine Arts

NOMINATION PROCESS

Each department may nominate one master’s student and one doctoral student. The academic area best describing the course(s) taught by the GTA must be specified in each nomination. Nomination materials should include:

1. A letter of nomination indicating which of the three academic areas best describes the courses taught by the GTA (required)
2. Faculty evaluation(s) of the GTA’s performance (required)
3. Student Experience Survey (SES) reports and/or Course Reflection Survey reports of the GTA’s course(s) or section(s) (required)
4. The GTA’s curriculum vitae including information about pedagogy training the student has participated in if applicable (required)
5. The GTA’s statement of teaching philosophy (required)
6. Recommendation letters from students (optional)
7. Samples of syllabi or class projects described by the GTA and any other items that demonstrate the GTA’s qualifications (optional)

Nomination materials will be uploaded to an electronic form and must be submitted by late October / early November, 2025.

SELECTION PROCESS

An ad hoc committee consisting of three faculty members (one from each of the three academic areas) and the student members of the Graduate Council will make the final selection. The ad hoc committee will forward its selections to the Provost by December, 2025.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• Amount and range of teaching experience (number of sections, number of distinct courses taught, experience in a traditional classroom vs. online setting, etc.).
• Contribution to the academic unit's teaching mission (e.g. development or enchancement of course materials used by other instructors, mentoring of other graduate assistants).
• Initiative to pursue training and/or scholarship in effective and inclusive pedagogy
• Use of creative and evidence-based methods to effectively engage all students in learning.