The Basic Policy

As noted in Renewals of Multi-year Fellowships, section III.A.3., because GSAS considers funding to be a cooperative venture between the student, the department, and the Graduate School, every fellow is required to submit evidence each year of at least one good faith effort to obtain funding from a funding source external to the University. In addition to providing greater stipends, outside fellowships also offer students opportunities to hone grant-writing skills, enhance their curriculum vitae, and make invaluable academic contacts for the future.

To encourage students to compete for outside funding, GSAS allows students to retain a combination of external and GSAS funds up to a specified cap that is higher than the standard stipend. This policy, known as the GSAS topping-off policy, applies when the following conditions are met:

• The source of the funding comes from outside Columbia University and the funding was obtained on the basis of a competitive application. An outside award will displace GSAS funding when the external award is supplemented by GSAS stipend and/or tuition and fees.

• The student would have otherwise received a year of his or her multi-year fellowship according to departmental policies

• The student is supported by GSAS funds. In most departments in the natural sciences, this policy generally applies to students in the first two years, since more advanced students are supported on departmental grants as GRAs. Departments are free to extend these policies to students who would normally be GRAs if they so chose.

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.

Examples of funding sources that are eligible for topping off are AAUW, AIIS, Alexander Von Humboldt, American Academy in Rome, American Museum of Natural History, BAEF, CAORC, Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation, Chateaubriand, DAAD, Delores Zohrab Liebmann, Eisenhower, EPA/Star, FLAS, Fulbright-Hays, Fulbright IIE, German Marshall, Global Change Education Program/Department of Energy, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Japan Foundation, Jacob K. Javits, Josephine De Karman, Krell Institute, Lucent Technologies, Mellon, Merck Pharmaceuticals, Miller Center of Public Affairs, NASA, NIH, NSEP/Boren, NSERC, NSF, Olin, Soros Foundation for New Americans, Space Telescope, SSRC, U.S. Department of Defense, Wenner-Gren, and Wexner.

Students may receive awards from areas of the University other than GSAS. This outside award policy therefore does not apply to these awards. Such areas include but are not limited to the Medical Center and institutes and centers in the School of International and Public Affairs (e.g., Harriman, Weatherhead). Examples of awards from these areas include CHSS Junior Fellows, Medieval Japanese Studies Fellowship, SWAMOS Fellowship, Pepsico Fellowship, Harriman Junior Fellows, C. Martin Wilbur Fellowship, Y. F. and L.C.C. Wu Fellowship, Julie How Fellowship, V. K. Wellington Koo Fellowship, Junior Fellowship in Japan Studies, Sylff Fellowship, and CIJS Fellowship.

The table below shows the combination of outside awards and GSAS stipends retained under the outside award policy. In this table, Stipend stands for the prevailing departmental stipend. The GSAS award is the portion of the stipend kept by the student sufficient to bring the total amount to the level indicated. (The right column in this table shows totals based on the standard $21,000 stipend for 2007-08.)

Examples: If a fellowship student in a humanities department (Stipend = $21,000) wins an outside award that provides a stipend of $3,000, the student retains the entire GSAS stipend of $21,000 for a total combined stipend of $24,000. If the outside award is $8,000, the total combined stipend rises to the $27,000 cap. If the outside award is $27,000, the total award rises to $30,000.