The Graduate School is committed to advancing academic excellence in graduate and postdoctoral education and training. We have several departments that can assist you with questions regarding professional development activities, administrative processes, and graduate student success initiatives.
Office Hours: 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., Monday through Friday
Campus Location: GSR 2.116
Phone:210-458-4331
Questions regarding admissions, transcripts and recruiting.
NSF GRFP eligibility and guidelines are located here.
ACTION ITEM: View the 2020 informational seminar with Dr. Zachary Tonzetich, an experienced NSF GRFP panelist. The seminar is available to view on The Graduate School’s YouTube channel.
DATE: September 15 at 5 P.M. CST
ACTION ITEM: Graduate student-mentor pairs must file a Notice of Intent (NOI) with participant information and a brief description of the concept project. The NOI will provide a preliminary descriptive title and brief description of the project, which will assist in selecting appropriate individuals for the Fellowship Incentive Review Committee. The graduate student should complete the non-binding NOI online here.
DATE: September 22 at 5 P.M. CST
ACTION ITEM: The Graduate School does not require the full application package for consideration to our Graduate School Fellowship Incentive Program. We require the Personal, Relevant Background, and Future Goals statement (< three pages) and the Graduate Research Plan statement (< two pages). These page limits include references, citations, charts, figures, images, and lists of publications and presentations. Student applicants must certify that the two provided statements are their own original work. The faculty mentor should upload the two statements as one PDF here. Note: students may have more than one faculty mentor, but only the primary mentor needs to upload the document.
DATE: October 1
ACTION ITEM: The Fellowship Incentive Review Committee will provide feedback to assure that the proposal is clearly written and that the two statements provided by the student (see above) can be understood by all reviewers. The Committee will look for the presence or absence of NSF merit elements in the proposal, including intellectual merit, broader impact, creative or transformative concepts, solid reasoning and clear writing, and assessment of success. Feedback will be shared as comments; no editing will be provided. If the statements contain the presence of all five elements, the proposal will be selected as an approved Graduate School Fellowship Incentive candidate.
DATE: October 15
INFORMATION: If any element is not present, the proposal can be revised and resubmitted for a second committee review no later than October 8. The committee will make a final decision regarding eligibility for the Graduate School Fellowship Incentive Program by October 15. Note: Proposals that are not eligible for the incentive program can still be submitted to NSF for consideration.
DATE: Approximately two months after proof of submission
INFORMATION: If a proposal is selected as an Incentive Candidate, the final criteria for a student and mentor(s) to each receive a $1K incentive ($2K total) is proof that the application package is complete and has been received by NSF. To provide proof, send a screenshot of your proposal’s Application Completion Status (located in the GRFP Application Module) to confirm that all application materials, including reference letters, have been received by NSF before the deadlines (October 18 – 22; for your exact Field of Study deadline, see NSF 21-602, C. Due Dates).
If you have further questions about this opportunity, please contact tejaguda@utsa.edu.
