Graduate Student Fellowships

The King Center offers graduate students one or two quarters of fellowship support in the form of tuition and a graduate student stipend during autumn, winter, and spring quarters. Qualified Stanford student applicants (PhD students with TGR status) must be pursuing dissertation research on topics related to global poverty and development.

Preference is given to applications from Stanford graduate students who are in their final year and who are completing their dissertations or students who are seeking to spend a quarter or more conducting research off campus. Applications from students who have experienced setbacks in their research due to the pandemic and need an extra year to graduate are also welcome to apply.

Application deadline

The application deadline for the 2024-25 Graduate Student Fellowships is April 3, 2024 at 11:59PM. To apply, please visit the opportunity's SOLO page.

Please contact the King Center at kingcenter@stanford.edu with any questions.

Please note: The letter of recommendation has the same due date as the application and must be submitted as a PDF file. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their letter of recommendation is submitted by the application deadline.  

Application

To apply, Stanford PhD students who have TGR status must submit:

• Dissertation proposal (five pages maximum), including a description of the question you are studying, a brief literature review, and a description of the overall design of your study(ies).
• If you are applying before the final year, a two-page project description of the project you will work on during the quarters for which you are requesting funding. This is not required for students applying for funding for their final year.
• Number of quarters of funding requested and which quarters, (autumn, winter, or spring quarter).
• PDF of the applicant’s CV or resume.
• PDF of the applicant’s transcripts.
• One letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor or academic mentor. These letters have the same deadline as the application and must be submitted by the faculty member through SOLO.

Please note: All files uploads must be submitted by as PDF files. 

Apply for a fellowship

Eligibility and requirements

Stanford PhD graduate students who will have TGR status at the time of award are eligible to apply.

Students may not defer this award to a future academic year. This award must be used for quarters during the upcoming  academic year. Students should only consider applying if they plan to use the award during the next academic year.

This fellowship may not be held concurrently with any other graduate fellowship or assistantship.

Recommendation letters

Faculty recommendation letters have the same deadline as the graduate student fellowship application. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their letter(s) of recommendation are submitted by the application deadline.

Students request recommendation letters within the application on the SOLO platform. A link is immediately sent to the faculty member, who can then upload the letter via SOLO. Letters should be submitted as PDF files.

Faculty may submit letters of recommendation at any time after receiving the link and do NOT have to wait for the student to complete and submit the application. This means that students, out of courtesy to the faculty, should initiate their application early enough to give advance notice to their recommenders, even if students plan to finalize the application closer to the deadline. We recommend inputting letter writer names at least two weeks before the deadline.

Award conditions

Prior to receiving funding, fellowship recipients must submit:

• 100-word abstract of their dissertation research, 
• Short biography written in the third person to be used on the center website and in materials for donors, and
• Photograph of the recipient to be used on the center website and in King Center materials.

Within one year of the award, fellowship recipients must submit a brief report on research progress, as well as an update on future academic plans, which may be shared with donors. This final report should be written in non-technical language, and should include:

• dissertation research topic,
• short summary of the research,
• research findings and contributions,
• how the fellowship enhanced or supported the research,
• the stage of the research, and 
• next steps, including future academic and/or professional career plans and anything that may be of interest to our donor(s).

Additional award conditions

In the recipient's dissertation, as well as any resulting publications, the fellowship recipient agrees to acknowledge that the research was supported by the Stanford King Center on Global Development’s Graduate Student Fellowship.

Awardees may be required to write a thank you letter to the donors who provided the fellowship funding and may be invited to present their work at a workshop or seminar organized by the King Center.

Questions?

Please contact the King Center at kingcenter@stanford.edu with any questions.