Continuing Student Fellowships

In addition to the university fellowships, competitive fellowships are available to current students from a number of sources including the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships and Provost Diversity Fellowships.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Cornell’s South Asia Program and Southeast Asia Program highly competitive grants, allowing them to offer Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to Cornell graduate students. These FLAS fellowships support training in South and Southeast Asian languages and a fuller understanding of the areas, regions, or countries in which those languages are commonly used.

Academic-year awards provide a nine-month stipend and a tuition allowance. Ph.D. and research master’s students who receive FLAS awards usually also receive a stipend supplement to bring the award to the nine-month assistantship minimum and tuition supplementation, along with individual Cornell Student Health Insurance (SHP).

Languages

• South Asia: Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Persian, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tamil, Modern Tibetan, Urdu
• Southeast Asia: Burmese, Khmer (Cambodian), Indonesian/Malay, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai, Vietnamese

Eligibility

Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to receive these grants, due to U. S. Department of Education regulations. During the academic-year fellowships, students must enroll in one foreign language and one area studies course each semester.

How to Apply

The initial deadline is in February or March each year. Further information is available through the Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Provost Diversity Fellowship for Advanced Doctoral Students

The Provost Diversity Fellowships are competitive one‐semester (fall or spring) or summer dissertation completion fellowships. They are available on a competitive basis to domestic advanced Ph.D. students who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, Indigenous peoples of Canada eligible to register as domestic students under the Jay Treaty, or students holding DACA, TPS, refugee, or asylee status who have made significant contributions to Cornell’s core value to provide a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn and work productively and positively together and/or have successfully navigated significant barriers to accessing graduate education. 

Eligibility

To be eligible for an award, nominees must have received at least one year of support (e.g. teaching assistantship, training grant, etc.) from their graduate field or special committee chair and meet the following conditions:

1. Enrolled in a Cornell doctoral program for a minimum of three years by the time of nomination;
2. Will have passed the A exam prior to the award period for the fellowship. 

Priority consideration is provided to nominees expected to complete all requirements for the doctorate within three terms (spring, summer, or fall) from the semester of nomination.

Submission Guidelines

Student Application Form

Includes submission of

• • Personal Statement (500 words maximum) Cornell University is founded on the principle of being “an institution where any person can find instruction in any study” and remains committed to our core value of providing a community of belonging. In your personal statement, please provide insight into how you have contributed to advancing this founding principle and institutional core value. You may draw from your lived experiences, service, leadership, or scholarly activities that demonstrate your commitment to:
    • Expanding access to education and opportunity
    • Fostering inclusive, supportive communities
    • Cultivating equitable learning and research environments

    Within your statement, you may also include:

    • Any relevant context around barriers you’ve encountered on your path toward doctoral degree completion
    • Ways in which you have demonstrated resilience and persistence in navigating these challenges

    Your statement should reflect your unique perspective and experiences while illustrating how they have shaped your potential to contribute meaningfully to Cornell’s academic and community life.

  • Dissertation Completion Plan
    • Including a timeline for work to be completed
    • Developed in collaboration with the nominee’s committee chair. 

Committee Chair Nomination Form

Includes confirmation of the committee chair’s approval of the dissertation completion plan submitted by the nominee and the submission of a letter of nomination that includes a mentoring and funding plan detailing how the committee chair will support the nominee through the successful completion of their doctorate and help them access postgraduate opportunities. The letter should also include a funding plan detailing how the nominee has been funded to date and how they will be funded through completion if the fellowship is not awarded. The mentoring plan may be informed by the FAIM Mentoring in Graduate Education content provided via the FAIM (Faculty Advancing Inclusive Mentoring) Resource Center.

Director of Graduate Study (DGS) Nomination Form

Includes confirmation of review and approval of the dissertation completion plan submitted by the student nominee and the mentoring and funding plan submitted by the committee chair.

Nomination Deadlines

Fall Application Cycle: The student application and the nomination forms from the committee chair and DGS must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on October 7. (If the application deadline falls on a holiday or weekend, applications will be due the next business day.) Fellowship award decisions will be announced by early November.

Spring Application Cycle: The student application and the nomination forms from the committee chair and DGS must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. on May 30. (If the application deadline falls on a holiday or weekend, applications will be due the next business day.) Fellowship award decisions will be announced by late June.