F. Wendell Miller Scholarship Program

Forms

Acceptance Form

Goal

"Increase the number of graduate, professional, and research programs that are among the very best—especially in areas that build upon university strengths and address local and global critical needs."

Description

The F. Wendell Miller Scholarship for graduate students is an annual program competition for awards of two or three years in duration. Because graduate students are one of the primary keys to developing a world-class research institution, the primary focus for the new awards will be to recruit highly talented Ph.D. candidates, either domestic or from around the world, who are deserving of financial assistance. Intercollegiate athletes and current members of fraternities and sororities are also not eligible.

This scholarship award will allow programs to put forward the best financial package to recruit the most highly qualified students, and it is intended to supplement rather than replace funding in the winning programs.

An awards competition will take place each year in the fall semester. A Scholarship Selection Committee appointed by the Graduate College will review proposals from departments/programs. Typically, departments apply and then use the scholarships for any of their majors. Interdepartmental programs can apply also. The deadline for applications is February 26, 2022 - 11:59 PM. It is estimated that 15 – 17 new scholarships will be awarded each year. Programs can request and win more than one scholarship, but those decisions will be based upon the pool of applying programs each year and will be at the discretion of the Scholarship Selection Committee. Departments/programs can also apply every year, but will be judged partly by the successes with current or previous awards.

  1. Current ISU students who are already enrolled in the program (unless they are planning to apply for a higher-level degree or a transfer to a different degree program) will not be eligible for the competition; this program is intended to bring new students into the graduate program.
  2. Each Scholarship must be awarded to an outstanding program applicant who has completed the application process and been admitted to the awarded program in a full admission status, with all documents completed and any requirements from that program met.
  3. Each department/program will have until May 1 (two years from the award announcement date), to award their scholarships. This allows the department/program to have several recruiting time frames to award scholarships.
  4. The F. Wendell Miller endowment provides for scholarships to students who are deserving of financial assistance. The Endowment does not provide assistance to students who are otherwise financially able to pay for their education. Intercollegiate athletes and current members of fraternities or sororities are also not eligible.
  5. Students also cannot be claimed as a dependent on their parents’ tax returns and their individual annual income, exclusive of the financial support offered (assistantships, fellowships and scholarships), is less than $15,000 per year.

After the scholarships are awarded:

  1. Students must complete the Acceptance Form, and submit it to the Graduate College and the graduate program office.
  2. The financial award will be applied by the Graduate College to the student's university account in two-semester installments of $2,500 for Ph.D. students and $2,000 for Master’s students, as long as the student is making satisfactory progress toward his or her degree. If the student’s GPA drops below 3.0, the scholarship will be suspended until the GPA reaches 3.0.
  3. If the student transfers to a different department/program, the Miller Scholarship can go with them.
  4. If a student leaves the university, the remaining Miller funds will revert back to the scholarship account. The department/program does not get to reissue the unused funds.
  5. If the student was recruited as a Ph.D. student and changes to a master’s student, the Miller funding will end.
  6. If the student was recruited as a master’s student and changes to a Ph.D. program, the student will receive the full amount of master’s funding awarded and then it will end.
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