Wimberly C. Royster Graduate Excellence Awards in Arts and Sciences

1. The purpose of the awards: to recruit the strongest applicants to our graduate programs, and to increase students' prospects for success and timely completion of degrees.

2. Eligibility: 90th Percentile on one section of the GRE or 80th percentile on two sections of the GRE or 3.8UGPA, or eveidence of exceptional promise of an applicant near these cutoffs; the applicant's strengths and potential contributions to the graduate program (e.g., research experience, contribution to program diversity) must be described.

3.  Procedure: Applications will be accepted immediately, and should be submitted on the nomination form to Sarah Lyon (sarah.lyon@uky.edu) and Alycia Sullivan (aasullivan@uky.edu).  The application form can be found here.

The deadline for full consideration is February 7.  Nominees after February 7 will be accepted if space allows.  A College review committtee will evaluate nominations and make recommendations for awards.  The committee also will establish a rank-ordered list of alternates in the event that some awards are declined.  If an applicant from a specific department declines, the next alternate may not be from that same department.

Please note: although each nomination form is for an individiual student, departments/programs submitting multiple nominations should include a cover note that ranks the nominations, with brief rationale for the rankings.

4. It is anticipated that most awards will be $3,000 but there will be some awards of special distinction (or even a way for a department ot use an award of special distinction in combination with block funds in award to offer a semester fellowship stipend).  The goal for these to be renewable for a total of two years (masters program) or three years (PhD program), contingent on successful progress in the student's program.  A student admitted to a UK A&S Masters Program prior to continuing admission to the PhD program can be eligible for a maximum of three years of funding.

5. The awards are designed for flexibilty in the use of funds.  After a decision is made to offer an award to an application, the program and applicant will work out the appropriate award machanism, including as possiblities:

a) Top up to AY assistantship offer

b) Summer research funding

c) With special permission, a research award (eg, supplies for a project, travel to a field site)