Eligibility

• Students must be officially advanced to doctoral candidacy at the time of nomination (March 21, 2025). Starting the 2026-2027 application cycle, doctoral students must advance to candidacy no later than the fall quarter of the application year (December 12, 2025).
• Eligible students must be one of the following: 1) US citizens; 2) permanent residents; 3) international students; 3) undocumented students who are eligible for an AB540 exemption. For international students, funding is subject to eligibility with regard to visa type. For those under AB540, funding will be provided only if AB131 is still in effect for the duration of the award.
• Students may only be nominated one time for the Dissertation Year Award. Second nominations will be allowed in the 2025-2026 cycle by exception. The department is expected to address why the student did not complete the program in 2024-2025 since their completion was attested by the department at the time of the student’s nomination. Second nominations will not be allowed starting in the 2026-2027 award cycle.
• Students may be nominated for the UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Award (UC PPPF) and the DYA in the same year. If a student is awarded both, the student must choose one.
• Students who have previously received any dissertation award from DGE funds (such as, but not limited to, a Distinguished TA Dissertation Year Award or the UC President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship) are not eligible for a DYA.
• Students who are current or past recipients of dissertation awards provided by outside funding sources that are for the student’s final year of dissertation writing are not eligible for the DYA.
• Cota-Robles awardees with multi-year extramural funding (e.g., NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program) are not eligible to apply for the Dissertation Year Award.

Award Amount

$30,000 in student financial support plus standard tuition and fees (excluding non-mandatory fees, nonresident supplemental tuition and professional degree supplemental tuition, if applicable).

Deadline

February 14, 2025, 4 PM Pacific Time

Applications that are not submitted on time, fail to follow the submission procedures listed below or forwarded as an incomplete application will be disqualified and not reviewed.  Applicants/departments will not be notified. Revisions to applications after submission are not allowed; no exceptions.

Apply

By applying, students understand that they are giving their consent to disclose application information to University officials and to relevant funding committees.

Applicants must be nominated by their department, IDP or school. To apply for nomination, students must:

1. Students must go to the 2025-26 Award Application for Continuing Graduate Students site at:
   https://grad.ucla.edu/funding/financial-aid/funding-for-continuing-students/fellowship-application/
2. Select the award application option.
3. Review the instructions entirely prior to starting the application.
4. Complete each section in order. The application sections are dynamic, so the application modifies the sections according to the entries.
5. Basic Information, Citizenship & UID, Major & GPA must be filled out for all awards.
6. Review the DYA section closely for specific instructions and required materials. Be sure to include all materials in their designated spaces on the application portal.
   1. Student’s Proposed Plan for Completing the Dissertation. Upload this document in the DYA section. This document should be written so that the work will be understandable and its significance appreciated by faculty who are not experts in the student’s field. The document must also provide evidence that the student can successfully complete the dissertation in the award year. A feasible and clear timeline for completion is an important factor in the selection process. The student’s name and “Proposed Plan for Completing the Dissertation” should appear at the top of each page. The plan should also describe or include:
      1. A brief abstract that summarizes the following in a manner appropriate to the subject or discipline:
         • motivation, context and/or foreground for the research;
         • question or hypothesis being addressed;
         • theoretical framework, experimental approach or research methodology;
         • preliminary findings;
         • innovation, significance and/or impact of the work.
         • Typically, the abstract is about 150 to a maximum of 300 words in length. It is essential that it be written for faculty who may not be expert in the student’s field of research.
      2. A brief introduction that provides background and context for the work.
      3. A research plan that describes the current status of the research and the plan for addressing the remaining research aims/goals to complete the dissertation. This section may include images, graphs, and/or tables, if appropriate.
         • If applicable, the plan should include information on sampling, instrumentation, data sources and collection, analyses and expected results. A synopsis of preliminary results or analyses may be incorporated as space permits.
      4. A detailed timeline with projected monthly progress for the remaining research, writing, revision and defense of the dissertation (see “Activation Term Selection” section below).
      5. The Proposed Plan must be a maximum of four pages double spaced. Minimum font size is 11 pt., with at least 1” margins. Any images, captions, graphs, tables, notes and/or references may be single spaced, but must be 11pt. font and included within the four pages. Pages in excess of four pages will not be forwarded for review.
      6. Provide faculty mentor information in the DYA section

7. Upload an unofficial copy of your Graduate Transcript with Fall 2024 grades posted to the Transcript section. The transcript printed from MyUCLA is acceptable. Do not submit a Degree Progress Report (DPR).
   1. Students who have incomplete grades that remain unresolved (i.e., “I” grades) are strongly encouraged to provide a statement explaining the context surrounding the incomplete(s) and how the student is moving forward with their degree progress.
8. A Personal Statement is required. The statement must include the student’s career goals after receiving the degree (maximum two pages, double-spaced, 11 pt font with 1” margins – an accessible font, such as Calibri, Arial or Aptos is required).
9. Provide an updated Resume or Curriculum Vitae in the Resume/CV section with the following items, as appropriate to the discipline:
   1. Education (degrees earned and in progress, with dates; date of advancement to doctoral candidacy)
   2. Extramural, departmental and Division of Graduate Education awards and prizes (include year and amount)
   3. Published and submitted manuscripts, if any, during the student’s doctoral program at UCLA. Provide full citations, including start/end pages. Do not include manuscripts in preparation.
   4. Conference presentations, if any, while a doctoral student at UCLA. Indicate the conference date and place, and whether it was a poster or oral presentation. If there are multiple authors, place an asterisk by the name of the presenter.
   5. Other creative, academic and professional contributions in the student’s field, such as performances, exhibits, community and public service.
10. TWO letters of recommendation, one of which must come from the dissertation chair. Both letters must be signed and on department letterhead. Enter the information for each faculty member in the letter of recommendation section. This will generate an automatic email from the application portal to the faculty recommenders.
    1. References should emphasize academic accomplishments, degree progress and feasibility of completing the dissertation within the 12-month period proposed by the applicant.
    2. It will be the student’s responsibility to ensure that the letter has been submitted on time. Be sure to follow up with the recommender as needed. The online site will provide information about the status of the letter’s upload.  The Division of Graduate Education is not responsible whatsoever in contacting recommenders.
    3. The letter of recommendation is due on or before the application deadline. Applications missing the letter of recommendation or with letters not submitted on time will be disqualified and not reviewed. Applicants/departments will not be notified.
11. If there is a document that should be in landscape position and it is in portrait position, please rotate it.

Expectations

It is expected that students receiving the Dissertation Year Award will not be employed more than 25% time, including those with summer DYA funding.

Award recipients should complete all degree requirements within 12 months of beginning their dissertation awards and will be asked to submit a report of their progress at the midpoint. Failure to submit a progress report by the deadline will result in suspension of payment for subsequent terms.

Recipients must be registered and enrolled in at least 12 units during the entire academic year. Registration/enrollment is not required for summer payments. Awardees with summer DYA funding must have been registered/enrolled in the previous Spring and must plan to register/enroll in the following Fall. If not, their summer funding will be cancelled, and it will have to be repaid.

Activation Term

Students will select one of three DYA start dates (July 1, October 1 or January 1) in their application submission. Offers made to awardees will be set according to this selection. Whichever start date is selected, the awardee will have 12 months during which to complete and file the dissertation. This is essential information for reviewers to evaluate the likelihood that the work will be completed within the proposed time frame.