Funding Opportunities

The Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships is an office at the University of Michigan that recruits and prepares U-M undergraduates, graduate and professional students and recent alums for major national scholarship and fellowship competitions such as the Rhodes Scholarship for postgraduate study at Oxford. 

ONSF was created in 2017 to address the knowledge gap students faced when seeking opportunities and support to apply to nationally recognized scholarship and fellowship programs. We hope that students will use ONSF as a single, comprehensive source of information for nationally- and internationally-competitive scholarships and fellowships. 

Rackham normally funds students to give one conference presentation each academic year, either in the U.S., or abroad (funding for additional conference presentations can be requested from the department.) Students who receive a Rackham Travel Grant may also apply for Linguistics Block Grant funds for additional support.

For more information, or if you wish to apply, please click here.

Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Funding

Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Fund is intended to help meet the financial needs of Rackham graduate students who encounter an emergency situation or one-time, unusual, or unforeseen expenses during their degree program.

See the program details for more information about eligibility and procedures for application.

Center for the Education of Women+: Emergency Funding

CEW+ is able to offer small emergency grants to current U-M Ann Arbor graduate students and undergraduate students. These grants, called Emergency Funds (EF), are for unexpected, unanticipated financial emergencies that threaten to derail degree progression.

To be considered for CEW+ Emergency Funding, the student will need to call 734-764-6360, fill out this form, or email cew.appts@umich.edu to schedule an emergency funding appointment with a CEW+ counselor. 

Center for the Education of Women+: Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellowship is a highly competitive fellowship is for outstanding women graduate students with a strong potential to make exceptional contributions to society.

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee invites applications in the Fall term from appropriate doctoral candidates, although eligible interested students should contact the Graduate Chair at linggradchair@umich.edu.

For more information, see the CEW Scholarships page and scroll down to the "Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellowship"

Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship

The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is a highly competitive award that provides stipend, tuition, and GradCare for the 12-month term of the award. The fellowship is intended for outstanding doctoral candidates who will complete the dissertation in the year in which they hold the fellowship and who will complete the Ph.D. within 6 years of beginning their programs.

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee solicits applications, which include a detailed statement of the proposed dissertation project, in the Fall term of each year (via an email message sent out by the Graduate Chair). The Graduate Committee selects the student(s) to be nominated on the basis of several factors, including competitiveness of the academic record and the extent to which the research statement is intellectually engaging and succeeds in addressing a broad audience of scholars who may lack knowledge of that particular area of inquiry.

Barbour Scholarship

The Barbour Scholarship is awarded to exceptional women from Eastern countries. It is an 8-month award that includes stipend, tuition, and GradCare. 

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee solicits applications, which include a detailed statement of purpose, from eligible students in the Fall term of each year; the nominee is selected by the Graduate Committee.

Humanities Candidacy Research Fellowship

A Candidacy Fellowship includes stipend, tuition, and GradCare for one academic (Fall or Winter) semester, plus stipend and GradCare (no tuition) for the flanking Spring-Summer (i.e., a total of 8 months stipend support). Candidacy Fellowships are restricted to students who advanced to candidacy by the end of their third year and are not past the sixth year of their doctoral program.

Three Candidacy Fellowships are available each year. Requests for applications are sent (via email) to all graduate students by the Graduate Chair[EMAIL LINK]. Before applying, students should consult with their advisors to determine if an award is appropriate at this stage of the dissertation research. Applications include a statement of the dissertation topic, along with a statement of the progress that has been made to date on the dissertation or the prospectus.

One-Term Dissertation Fellowship

The One-Term Dissertation Fellowship includes stipend for one semester, tuition, and GradCare. Rackham requires that recipients have established a dissertation committee and submitted the Nomination of Dissertation Committee form to the Records and Dissertation Office prior to the beginning of the term of the fellowship. One award is made each year, typically to a student who is in the final defense term. 

Requests for applications are sent (via email) to all doctoral candidates by the Graduate Chair. Applications include a statement of the dissertation topic, discussion of the current state of the dissertation work and how much remains to be done, and explanation of how the fellowship would help the student move more quickly towards degree completion.

Many external funding sources are available and, beginning in students' first year in the program, students and their advisors should consider external sources of funding for students' graduate education and research. The two external sources most commonly sought by our students are NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and Fulbright Fellowships; the latter is administered at UM through the International Institute. The Rackham Fellowships Office also has information on a wide range of external funding sources.

Other external funding sources:

ACLS dissertation completion fellowship (call opens in the Summer for following year)

NSF Linguistics - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (DDRI)

Permanent International Committee of Linguists - International conference grant

RISE Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center Grants