External Fellowship Policy

Benefits of Applying for External Awards

The financial support of our PhD students is essential to the timely completion of the degree and to their professional success. External fellowships help students extend funding for additional semesters past their GSAS guaranteed fellowship years; the application process also helps students develop grant-writing skills and further enhance their curriculum vitae with evidence of competitive fellowship awards. 

The GSAS multiyear fellowship is guaranteed for PhD students during their funding-eligible years, which in almost all cases for students entering prior to fall 2023 are years 1-5.  (Students should refer to their letter of admission to confirm the number of guaranteed years that they received.)  Beginning with the fall 2023 cohort in Humanities and Social Science departments, students received a six-year guarantee.

Requirement to Apply

GSAS requires that students apply for external awards at least once during the first four years of registration in a GSAS doctoral program. Students are required to submit to their DGS evidence of at least one good-faith effort to obtain funding from a funding source external to the university. Students should consult with the DGS to determine what constitutes such an effort for a particular field and stage in the program, though a typical packet would include copies of the fellowship applications and of the outcome notifications received from the outside grant sources. The DGS supplies this information to the Graduate School.

Students on 9-month appointments (Humanities and Social Sciences, Math, Statistics, E3B)

Award "Top-Off" 

As an incentive to seek outside awards, PhD students who receive a competitively awarded external fellowship of at least $6,000 for an academic year (September through May) in which they would have otherwise received a GSAS-funded fellowship as part of the multi-year funding package received upon admission will receive supplemental stipend support to ensure that the student receives the standard academic year stipend amount for that year, plus an additional $6,000 stipend (often referred to as a “top-off”).  GSAS will pro-rate this additional support for those students who hold an external award for one semester.

Release from Teaching

Students who receive one of the following for the academic year will usually be released from teaching during the period of the award:

  • an award for which the stipend is at least two-thirds of the GSAS standard academic year stipend
  • a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) award

The only exception to this teaching release will be made if the student will not have another opportunity to complete the GSAS one-year instructional requirement before completing the MPhil.  If a student on an external award must be appointed to teach, GSAS will provide additional support if needed to bring the total award to align with the academic-year student officer appointment rate.

Students in E3B, Math, and Statistics with stipend awards (including summer) greater than 40% of the annual (12-month) GSAS fellowship stipend rate and a tuition grant (“cost-of-education allowance”) of at least $15,000 will receive a $6,000 stipend supplement plus additional stipend support to ensure that the student receives the annual fellowship stipend rate.

Extension (“Banking”) of GSAS Funding During Guaranteed Years:
Humanities and Social Sciences Departments Only

Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences who are eligible to receive the $6,000 additional stipend (“top off”) may forgo this stipend and opt instead to use only the amount of the external award so that they may defer (“bank”) a year of their GSAS multi-year fellowship (or, one semester, for semester-long awards), subject to the pre-MPhil GSAS instructional requirement for PhD students. Students who opt to “bank” their GSAS multi-year fellowship will receive a fellowship to cover their tuition and fees during the period in which they are supported by their external award.

As of fall 2020, GSAS allows students who hold new external awards that are renewable for four or more years, but are between $6,000 and two-thirds of the GSAS standard academic year stipend, to forgo the $6,000 “top-off” stipend in exchange for release from teaching in one of the years that they would otherwise be required to teach. GSAS will provide supplemental stipend support to ensure that students receive, in combination with their external award, the standard stipend rate. Please be advised that in selecting this option, students will need to commit to this payment arrangement for the duration of their award.

Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences are required to submit the “Statement of Understanding” form which notifies GSAS whether they are opting to defer their GSAS funding rather than receive the $6,000 additional stipend. Students whose forms are not received by August 1 (for the fall semester or for the academic year) or by December 16 (for spring-semester-only awards) will automatically receive the additional stipend and not defer their GSAS funding.

Students in Year 7: Conditions for M&F Tuition and Health Fee Coverage
Humanities and Social Sciences Departments Only

GSAS will provide coverage for matriculation and facilities (M&F) tuition and health fees, as well as the international service fee if applicable, for 7th-year students in the Humanities and Social Sciences who have external awards when the following conditions apply:

  • External granting agency requires that Columbia covers the tuition and fees, OR
  • Value of the external award is greater than or equal to what we define as a "significant award" under our external award policy (i.e. two-thirds of the standard academic year stipend)

For awards that are less than two-thirds of the standard academic year stipend, GSAS will make reasonable efforts to establish an equal cost-sharing arrangement with the student’s department to cover partially or fully the M&F tuition and related fees.

If a doctoral student in year 7 makes a demonstrable good-faith effort by applying to at least three external funding sources to secure such awards but fails to secure them, they may appeal to the Dean to request a similar cost-sharing arrangement with the department. Copies of applications and notifications of unsuccessful outcomes will be required. The Dean and the department make the final decisions on whether such appeals are granted.

Exception for Students in Year 6 Only Through Academic Year 2027-28
Humanities and Social Sciences Departments Only

Through academic year 2027-28, GSAS will grant the following exception to Humanities and Social Sciences students in their sixth year who receive an external award. Such students may opt to have GSAS bring their external award up to the prevailing fellowship stipend rate or bank their eligibility for a backstopped teaching fellowship until their seventh year. Students who opt for GSAS to bring their external award stipend to the prevailing stipend rate will not receive the additional $6,000 stipend (“top-off”) described above.  They also will not be required to teach if the stipend from their external award is at least two-thirds of the GSAS standard academic-year fellowship stipend.

Natural Sciences Students on 12-month Appointments

GSAS encourages students in Natural Sciences departments to seek external support and provides supplemental funding to those who secure such awards during their guaranteed funding years, which are generally 1-5. Students should refer to their letter of admission for confirmation.

Students who hold external awards whose stipend value inclusive of summer is greater than 40% of the annual GSAS fellowship stipend rate will receive a supplement of $1,500. In addition, if the external award is below the annual fellowship stipend rate, GSAS will provide additional stipend support to ensure that the student receives this amount. GSAS will provide stipend support to students holding awards that are below the 40% threshold so that they receive the standard academic-year fellowship rate. Such students will also receive a $1,500 stipend supplement but will be funded during the summer as a student officer of instruction or research.  Regardless of the value of the external award, GSAS will ensure that students who are appointed as student officers of instruction or research will receive the equivalent for students on appointment.

2024-2025 Funding Amounts for Students Holding External Awards

9-month departments

12-month departments, all students with NSF Fellowships

It is important to note the following:

  • External fellowships are defined as those awarded in a competitive application process external to the university. Substantial, or significant, external awards are defined as awards that are equal to or greater than two-thirds of the annual fellowship stipend.
  • This policy does not apply to the following internal awards: GSAS International Travel Awards, dissertation fellowships supported by departmentally managed endowments, faculty research grants, awards that are granted through internal selection committees, or teaching assistantships, such as the Cordier, PEPM, IRAAS, ISSG, and CSER, for example.
  • External employment is not equivalent to an external award. The GSAS policy regarding employment or other non-fellowship activities for students holding teaching and research appointments can be found here.
  • External awards with academic-year stipends that are less than $6,000 are below the threshold for consideration under this policy.
  • Unless the outside award's policy explicitly requires the university to permit deferral of the award, fellowship students are not allowed to defer outside funding.
  • GSAS funding must be used within the first seven years of the PhD program. Students who do not use their deferred GSAS fellowship by the end of their seventh year will not receive retroactive top-off funding.
  • Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences holding an external award in their first year are subject to the same restrictions on working as students supported as a first-year Dean’s Fellow.  Students on external awards beyond the first year are subject to the same restrictions on working as those on most Dissertation Fellows (those not serving as a student officer). More information regarding limitations on hours may be found here.
  • For students in departments with 9-month appointments who hold external awards that exceed the standard stipend by $10,000 without specifying amounts for tuition, stipend, and/or fees, GSAS will provide a $6,000 additional stipend (“top-off”) while expecting the award to cover the student's required fees.
  • Students in departments with 9-month appointments who receive an external fellowship that is awarded explicitly for the months of June, July, and August will also receive their GSAS summer stipend.
  • Students who receive an external award in a year when they were expected to teaching (according to the terms of their multiyear fellowship) and who choose extend (“bank”) their GSAS funding, are required to teach when they use the banked GSAS funding. For example, if a year of teaching fellowship is replaced with an external fellowship, then the extended funding year remains a teaching fellowship year. Regardless of how a student is supported, all PhD students must complete the mandatory one-year GSAS teaching requirement.
  • Students on external fellowships must be registered full time during the term of the fellowship. If the award does not cover the student’s tuition and fees during a guaranteed funding year, GSAS will provide a fellowship to cover the appropriate full-time tuition as well as the Columbia Student Health Plan premium and the Health and Related Services Fee to those students who are funding eligible. In the event that the external award pays some of the tuition and/or health fees, GSAS will pay the difference. Funding-eligible students holding research travel awards who wish to extend their time in the field by up to two semesters may request from their department a fellowship to cover M&F tuition and health fees. In such cases, GSAS will provide matching funds to offset the cost of the fellowship.
  • Students receiving awards granted through internal GSAS or Columbia selection committees may not choose the extended GSAS funding option. These awards may not be deferred and must be used within the same academic year. GSAS International Travel Awards are internal fellowships, and cannot be banked for a future semester or academic year. In addition, teaching assistantships, such as the Cordier, PEPM, IRAAS, IRWGS, Kluge, and CSER, for example, are not considered external awards. The only exception to this rule is: 
    • Students who receive an academic year FLAS award and spend that year abroad deepening proficiency in a target language will not have that year counted as one of the student’s funded years. The top-off option will be applied for FLAS recipients who are not studying abroad. 
  • Students who receive any incremental GSAS fellowship such as any of the GSAS international travel awards, the Lindt Fellowship, or the Zuckerman Fellowship are not permitted to teach or hold another fellowship concurrently with this award.
  • Students who receive awards which include a Cost of Attendance component must have those funds applied to their tuition and fee charges.
  • Funding-eligible students who receive a significant external award (see definition above) and a Teaching Scholar position may opt to forgo the teaching fellow (TA) semester of the award and be supported solely by their external award for that semester.  In the Teaching Scholar semester, such students may combine their external funding and the GSAS Teaching Scholar award up to the semester standard salary plus $3,000.  For both semesters, GSAS will cover any tuition and fees above what the external award may provide. 

If you have questions about these policies, please see these Frequently Asked Questions.