[Poscgrad] DCFA: Apply by Fri. Oct. 10

[Marissa Brookes]

Dear POSC Graduate Students,

I am writing to inform you of the call for applications and upcoming
deadline (*internal deadline: Friday, October 10*) for Graduate
Division's *Dissertation
Completion Fellowship Award *(*DCFA*) for students who will graduate by
Spring 2026. Please note that departments are no longer allocated
guaranteed fellowships; however, POSC is allowed to nominate up to three
students for this award (one round in Fall for Winter/Spring plus another
round in Winter for Spring/Summer). Grad Div expects to support approx. 50% of
nominations campuswide.

*Dissertation Completion Fellowship Awards (DCFAs)*


   - The DCFA supports PhD students for their final 1 or 2 quarters.


   - Awardees will receive a $11,500 stipend per quarter and paid tuition.


   - All awardees MUST complete their PhDs by Spring 2026; otherwise, our
   department will be banned from nominating *anyone* for this award in the
   next round.


   - The Political Science Department is allowed to nominate up to 3
   students for DCFAs; however, Graduate Division expects to support only
   ~50% of nominations campuswide. In other words, a department nomination is
   a necessary but insufficient condition for winning a DCFA.


   - Applications require, among other things, a letter of recommendation
   from your dissertation advisor, who must acknowledge your timeline and
   confirm your plan to graduate within the award period. See attached PDF and
   the link below for more information on application materials.


   - Please use this link to submit your DCFA application:
   https://grad.ucr.edu/portal/current_fellow_apps


   - Please *ALSO* email a pdf of your application to mbrookes at ucr.edu with
   "DCFA application" in the subject line. Last year we had issues with
   Slate, and I would rather that no one's application get lost in the system
   during the nomination process in case there are any technical difficulties.

Your applications are due *no later than 5:00 PM on Friday, October 10,
2025. *Please note that this date is an internal POSC deadline and
therefore *EARLIER* than the one listed in the attached PDF.  After our
internal (departmental) review of applications, we will send our official
nominations to Graduate Division. Nominated applications will then be
reviewed by faculty on the Graduate Council.



*Please read the attached application guidelines* *thoroughly* before
beginning your application. The Graduate Committee emphasizes generating *a
high-quality proposal*. Attached is advice for writing a strong
proposal. In writing your proposal, we encourage you to prioritize the
advice of the POSC Graduate Committee, as conveyed in the attached
document, while also fulfilling the criteria set out by Grad Division on
the official online form. We strongly encourage students to submit draft
proposals to faculty advisors and incorporate their feedback before
submitting their proposals.



Also, please note Graduate Division's *eligibility criteria* for the DCFA:


Eligibility Criteria for the DCFA:


1. Must be a PhD student who has advanced to candidacy by January 16, 2026.


2. Must not have more than 7 units of incomplete grades.


3. Can be on leave to apply but must be enrolled as a full-time student (12
units) during tenure of fellowship.


4. International and domestic students are eligible to apply.


Graduate Division no longer requires applicants to be on normative time to
be eligible for the DCFA. The pdf says something about applicants needing
to be on normative time in order to be eligible to apply. Graduate Division
has confirmed that this is not true. The only requirement is advancement to
candidacy defending by the end of the fellowship period.



*Before deciding to apply, please be sure that you will finish your degree
by the Spring 2026 deadline. If even one POSC student who is awarded the
DCFA by Graduate Division does not graduate on time, Grad Division will
collectively punish our department by banning us from one or more future
DCFA rounds*.


See attached PDF for more information.

Best of luck,

MB


P.S. The DYFA and HSI applications will not open until November. A separate
announcement will be sent once those applications are available.
--
Marissa Brookes
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies,
Department of Political Science
Faculty Co-Director, Inland Empire Labor and Community Center
University of California, Riverside
Watkins 2223
(951) 827-5510
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