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The Graduate School

Fellowships

Campus Sponsored Graduate Fellowships

Graduate fellowships are financial awards that hold no work obligation. You might think of them as being similar to a department sponsored scholarships. A student on a fellowship is only expected to fulfill the following:

  1. Full-time enrollment
  2. Must be a graduate student in good academic standing
  3. Enrollment in direct deposit through “Student Self Service” via the MyPack Portal
  4. Foreign national students must meet with a Foreign National Tax Specialist in the International Employment Tax Group of NCSU Human Resources for tax assessment and to sign appropriate tax forms

Fellowships are disbursed monthly, official disbursement dates can be found on the fellowship information form, see Processing Fellowships below for details. The fellowship year is August 1 – July 31.

Fellowship Type

There are two types of fellowships, Primary and Supplemental. The fellowship type is determined by the amount of the award and a department can not typically chose one over the other.

  • Primary fellowships are awards that are greater than or equal to $5,625/semester for Master’s students and $7,500/semester for Doctoral students. They are considered the student’s primary funding source and are responsible for any Graduate Student Support Plan costs in addition to the award. If a student also has an assistantship, only the fellowship will be held responsible for the cost. In rare cases, the Graduate School will consider an exception to the primary fellowship classification with appropriate justification. Please contact the Graduate School at  grad-fellowships@ncsu.edu for pre-approval.
  • Supplemental fellowships are awards that are less than $5,625/semester for Master’s students and $7,500/semester for Doctoral students. These fellowships are considered supplemental of other support a student may have and are not financially responsible for costs associated to the Graduate Student Support Plan.

Processing Fellowships

Departments or colleges that have funding for student fellowships can request that an award be entered through the Graduate School. The department would need to submit a completed signed Graduate Fellowship Payment Information form along with an award offer letter to grad-fellowships@ncsu.edu. (See Helpful Resources below).

Forms must be submitted at least one week prior to the award disbursement and fellowships can only be entered one fellowship year at a time (August 1 – July 31).

Form Instructions: The Graduate Fellowship Information Form is designed to help you make your request. When filling the form out on your computer, the form will auto-fill in the standard payment schedule based on the award amount and the semester’s you wish to pay out in (e.g. Spring, Summer, Fall).  If you wish to have your award disburse using different dates. Select the alternate schedule and you can then manually enter the award amounts you wish to use instead.

International Students

There are no limitations for international students to hold fellowships, and they are not required to have a social security number in order receive their award. Students will however, need to meet with the International Tax Office to set up their tax panel. Some countries require a tax on awards such as fellowships. The International Tax Office will be able to walk students through the process and answer any tax information they may have. For more information, please visit the International Tax Office website.

Helpful Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Students are paid through the Cashier’s Office via direct deposit. This direct deposit is different than the direct deposit that the Payroll Office uses. A student who may have a student job will still need to set up direct deposit with the Cashier’s Office. For instruction, please see the Cashier’s Office website.

If the department needs to make a change to an existing award, a new Fellowship Information Form will need to be submitted with the updated information. Please note that changes can only be made going forward. No retroactive changes can be made.

This will depend on the funding source. Fellowships are taxed at the time of disbursement, however, not all fellowships are non taxable and may be subject to taxation on a student’s tax return. For questions about if a fellowship is taxable, the student should talk to a tax professional.

Since fellowships are not work obligation, NC State does not with hold or report any tax information on the award to the IRS. As a result, the university does not produce any forms with the total amount of the award for a tax year. This means that it would not be reflected on the student‘s T-1098, which reflects tuition.  It also wouldn’t be on their their W-2 or 1099 which reflects income. Some fellowships may need to be self reported, however, the student would need to speak to a tax professional to determine if and how their fellowship should be reported.

Students on fellowships may still need to report the fellowship on their personal tax-return.  To determine if their award should be filed as taxable income, they will need to work with a tax professional. To determine how much they received this tax year, they can get this information in one of two places.
  1. Student Bills. On a student’s bill they can see the disbursements of fellowship awards. They can use their student bill as a records of all awards received in 2017. Again, a tax professional can answer any further questions a student might have.
  2. Through the Department, Fellowship Page. Under Navigator > SIS > Admin Services > Finances, you will find all of your fellowship resources. Assuming you have the fellowship SAR role, you should see either “Student Fellowships” or “Graduate Fellowships” in this drop down. Both will show you the same information. Which ever you chose, select the “Other Info” tab at the top of your screen. One of the items on this screen is tax information. Select the small triangle to the left of the text, “Fellowship Disbursement by Tax Year.” Then the small triangle by the year you want to see, or select the printer button to print to give to the student. (Below is an example.)


No, since fellowships hold no work obligation, employment verification can not be created for the award. If a verification of funding is required, please reach out to the Graduate School.