RESEARCH
The MMUF program is, first and foremost, a research program. Research lies at the heart of a professional academic’s work, and research experience and production are essential at each stage of the career of a professor-in-training, from the graduate school application process to the tenure process and beyond. As future academics, MMUF’s fellows require a thorough understanding of the principles and methods of academic research and a firm confidence in the practice of it; thus the MMUF program is designed to give undergraduate fellows intensive and ongoing research experience, beginning at an earlier point in their careers than is typical for most college undergraduates.
During their undergraduate years, each MMUF fellow is expected to conduct an individual research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor, culminating in a final thesis paper or presentation during the senior year.
MENTORING
The MMUF program is built on the proven notion that mentoring is of critical importance in supporting the growth of future scholars of color and others committed to the program’s mission. Each undergraduate Mellon fellow is paired with at least one faculty mentor, with whom they are expected to meet on a regular basis. Fellows work with their mentors to develop their scholarly interests into research directions and projects. As mentors, faculty members have the knowledge and responsibility to demystify the formal and informal aspects of conducting research, applying to graduate school, competing effectively once in a graduate program, earning the doctorate and pursuing faculty careers. We also encourage undergraduate fellows to cultivate mentoring relationships with MMUF fellows who are advancing through graduate school and into academic careers – and we hope and expect that fellows will themselves become mentors to younger fellows as their own careers advance.
MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS
All MMUF campus programs are required to hold meetings at least twice per month. Meetings are directed by campus coordinators and others designated by the coordinators, who in some cases may include fellows’ faculty mentors. Students come together to present their research, exchange ideas, and discuss various topics related to academic life and preparation for graduate school. Workshops are often conducted on topics such as taking the GRE, writing and research, public speaking, working effectively with mentors, presenting at academic conferences, applying to graduate school and obtaining graduate funding.
FELLOW STIPENDS
Fellows receive modest stipends during the academic year so that they may have more time to focus on their academic work and research. Fellows are also awarded summer stipends after the sophomore and junior years to conduct research that may include related travel.
REGIONAL UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCES
The regional MMUF undergraduate conferences, which in most cases take place annually, bring together MMUF fellows and coordinators from member institutions in the same geographic region. The conferences allow fellows to present their own research, critique the research of other fellows, make connections in the program outside their own institutions, and gain an early sense of what the academic conference experience is like.
There are seven regional conferences in all; the member institutions that typically participate in each are listed below. In addition, some of the larger regions conduct mini-conferences which split the list of participating schools according to geographic proximity, and which alternate with the larger all-region events.
Each year, five new MMUF fellows are selected from among applicants in the rising junior classes at each of the 51 MMUF member institutions (with the exception of the three consortia, which select 20 to 25 fellows from across their member institutions). These newly selected cohorts of fellows join the previously selected cohorts of rising and graduating senior fellows in their institution's campus MMUF program, where they are provided with mentoring and financial support as they prepare for entry into PhD programs and eventual careers as scholars and faculty members.
While each campus MMUF program is provided flexibility to tailor its structure to its institutional needs, strengths and academic calendar, the timeline below gives a general sense of the program milestones and obligations undergraduates can expect to encounter during each phase of their college careers. While this timeline assumes a semester calendar, the general chronology of program milestones will be similar at schools on the quarter or trimester system.
SOPHOMORE YEAR, SPRING SEMESTER
At most member institutions on semester calendars, students apply to MMUF and fellows are selected in the spring of their sophomore year. For member institutions on the quarter system, the timing of selection varies but is generally slightly later.
SOPHOMORE YEAR, SUMMER
At many institutions, newly selected fellows participate in structured summer programs designed to acclimate them to the research process and prepare them for their academic-year MMUF work. If fellows do not participate in structured programs on their own or other campuses, they must design with their coordinator and mentor a program of independent research for the summer months.
JUNIOR YEAR, FALL SEMESTER
The first full year of MMUF work begins. In addition to regular meetings with their coordinators, mentors and peer fellows, most fellows will attend the undergraduate MMUF conference for their region. Some fellows choose to study abroad for a semester or year while meeting their MMUF commitments via arrangements worked out in advance with their coordinators and mentors.
JUNIOR YEAR, SPRING SEMESTER
Regular program meetings and activities continue; fellows whose regional undergraduate conference did not take place the previous fall will attend it this semester. New cohorts of MMUF fellows are selected from the rising junior class, while senior fellows are preparing for graduation and graduate school. Many institutions build GRE preparation into their junior year MMUF programming.
JUNIOR YEAR, SUMMER
Fellows generally participate in formal, campus-based research programs; others will travel to conduct research or receive language training pertinent to their fields. Many fellows begin work on an honors thesis.
SENIOR YEAR, FALL SEMESTER
Fellows check in with coordinators and mentors regarding the status of their summer research; seniors are working toward the culmination of their undergraduate MMUF research in a formal thesis paper, a presentation, or both. For those seniors applying to graduate school for the fall immediately after their college graduations, the application process begins or is already under way; others are taking the GRE and preparing applications for a later period.
SENIOR YEAR, SPRIING SEMESTER
Graduating fellows complete and submit their MMUF research projects; many institutions require formal, public research presentations by fellows. Seniors are also required to sit for MMUF exit interviews, in which they update their coordinators on their postgraduate plans and contact information. They also receive reminders about the graduate benefits available to them if they enter PhD programs in approved fields.
Students must formally apply to participate in the MMUF program. The application process generally includes a written statement of purpose, recommendation(s) from faculty member(s), an academic transcript, an interview with the selection committee, and other requirements according to institutional procedures.Fellows are generally chosen in the spring of their sophomore year after their majors have been declared, though there is some variation from institution to institution. In a few cases, fellows have been selected as juniors or seniors.
The Higher Learning program area at the Mellon Foundation, of which MMUF is a part, makes grants with the objective of amplifying perspectives and contributions that have been marginalized within the conventional scholarly record, and that promote the realization of a more socially just world. We call this objective multivocality, and this commitment is at the core of MMUF.
Student applicants to MMUF will be evaluated on the basis of their prior coursework, their plans for a major, and their potential to bring historically marginalized or underrepresented perspectives to the academy, including by producing scholarly research that reflects and satisfies the above-stated goal of the Higher Learning program.
Some research themes and rubrics that may satisfy this goal include, but are not limited to, the following: historical and contemporary treatments of race, racialization, and racial formation; intersectional experience and analysis; gender and sexuality; Indigenous history and culture; questions about diaspora; coloniality and decolonization; the carceral state; migration and immigration; urban inequalities; social movements and mass mobilizations; the transatlantic slave trade; settler colonial societies; and literary accounts of agency, subjectivity, and community. While it is not required that student applicants work within the above or related rubrics, preference may be given to applicants who do.
The following criteria are weighed in selecting participants for MMUF:
RECRUITMENT
Because of the range of institutions within MMUF, effective recruitment procedures for Mellon fellows will vary from school to school. Some best practices for recruitment that member institutions have reported to us include:
SELECTION
In selecting fellows, it is important and helpful to keep the mission of the MMUF program in mind. The fundamental objectives of MMUF are to reduce, over time, the serious underrepresentation on faculties of individuals from minority groups, as well as to address the consequences of these racial disparities for the educational system itself and for the larger society that it serves. These goals can be achieved both by increasing the number of students from underrepresented minority groups who pursue PhDs and by supporting the pursuit of PhDs by students who may not come from underrepresented minority groups but have demonstrated a commitment to the goals of MMUF. The MMUF program is designed to encourage fellows to enter PhD programs that prepare students for professorial careers; it is not intended to support students who intend to go to medical school, law school, or other professional schools.
If a student’s personal goals are clearly not in line with this objective, s/he is not a good candidate and should not be selected to participate in the MMUF program.
Individual campus programs may specify non-substantive details for MMUF applicants (such as how many letters of recommendation are required, or what form interviews take), but individual selection committees must judge each applicant pursuant to this full set of selection criteria. As in all selection processes that take into account several criteria, decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis by comparing each individual’s qualities with those of the rest of the applicant pool. Each participating institution has to ensure that its selection procedure is open and fair, and that it respects the stated criteria.
In cases where an undergraduate fellow leaves the program and a replacement fellow is selected, it has often been the practice to select fellows who were considered during earlier selection processes but did not make the cut. In addition, several member institutions have parallel, “associate” programs that are funded by the institution rather than by the Mellon Foundation; in some cases, “associate fellows” from these institution-funded parallel programs have been “promoted” to the status of Mellon-funded fellows.
MENTORS' ROLES
Fellows are asked to develop collegial relationships with faculty members, preferably in their fields of interest, to help them hone their research and writing skills and to introduce them to the life of an academic. As coordinators (particularly those of you who are faculty members), we ask you assist in establishing and fostering connections between fellows and faculty mentors.
A mentor and fellow often will work together for the duration of the fellow’s undergraduate career. Some programs, however, have found it beneficial for a fellow to have two or more mentors over the course of their undergraduate career. In some cases, it may be necessary to assist a fellow with assembling a mentoring team, if one faculty member cannot be identified that addresses all of the fellow’s mentorship needs. Ideally, we hope that mentor-mentee relationship(s) will continue to flourish throughout graduate school and beyond.
The process for selecting mentors varies from institution to institution. In many cases, fellows are asked to seek out their own mentors. Some are asked to do this before being accepted into the program (i.e., when students apply to become fellows, they are asked to include the contact information of their potential mentor(s)).
In other cases, fellows are matched with their mentors after their first summer in the program (the summer before their junior year). This arrangement has tended to work particularly well for (1) fellows who are still narrowing their fields of research, and (2) institutions with formal MMUF summer programs where mentorship is a definitive component. When mentors are selected during or after the fellows’ first summer, coordinators may take an active role in surveying colleagues in fellows’ fields of interest.
Though it is not encouraged due to the work load and potential conflicts of interest that may arise, occasionally, coordinators have themselves served as mentors. Any coordinator considering this course of action should contact MMUF Director Armando Bengochea to discuss the particular situation, available options, and associated administrative issues.
COMPENSATION
In appreciation for mentors’ work with fellows, many institutions provide various means of modest compensation. Indirect compensation may include celebratory events in honor of MMUF mentors. Direct compensation includes the Mentor Stipends/Book Awards included in most MMUF budgets. Some institutions may provide these book awards after a mentor has worked with a fellow for two years, at the end of the fellow’s senior year. Other institutions compensate mentors on an annual basis.
For institutions that provide a fellow with two mentors (i.e., one for the summer term(s) and one for academic terms, or one for the junior year and one for the senior year), coordinators are asked to refer to their MMUF budget to determine monetary compensation. If two mentors per fellow have been budgeted for (i.e. 40 mentors/20 fellows), both mentors may be compensated accordingly.
If two mentors per fellow have not been budgeted, please note that mentor compensation is intended for the primary person who works with the fellow during his/her two years in the program, not for others who perhaps work with fellows only during the summer. The coordinator has the discretion to determine the payment schedule for the mentor stipend.
Fellows receive stipends during the academic year so that they may have more time to focus on their academic work and research. Summer stipends are also awarded to conduct research and to travel. All participating MMUF institutions have agreed with the Mellon Foundation not to use MMUF stipends as part of fellows’ financial aid packages (this includes summer stipends). Fellows are eligible for a maximum of two years of Mellon support. Fellows who do not graduate on schedule may participate for a third year at the institution’s discretion; however, no Mellon funds will be provided in support of a third year.
Fellows should receive only one stipend for a particular summer research experience. We encourage you to contact the administrators of the fellow's summer research program to determine whether the summer stipend should come from the MMUF budget or the summer program's budget. If the stipend ultimately comes from the research program's budget, the fellow may submit to you a proposal and budget for a different research project in order to receive a portion of his/her MMUF summer stipend.
To prevent a fellow from receiving two stipends (i.e., an MMUF summer stipend and an external summer program stipend) for the same summer research experience, there are three options. (a) The fellow may submit a separate budget detailing how MMUF funds would be used; the coordinator can then determine whether to approve the request or not. (b) The coordinator may require that the fellow submit a proposal for a separate (but perhaps related) research project to work on in the summer so that the MMUF stipend could fund that project. (c) If the research program does not span the entirety of the summer, the coordinator may prorate the stipend for the remainder of the summer. That is, if the research program spans June and July, you may provide MMUF funds for the month of August.
Please note that summer funds may only be used during the summer term. Fellows in semester-schedule institutions that offer fellows two summers' worth of funding before graduation (i.e., the summers before the junior and senior years of study) should use all undergraduate-designated funds before they receive their bachelor's degrees. Each fellow is allotted a maximum of two years of summer stipend money, regardless of the overall program funds that may be available.
The Foundation expects fellows to devote up to two summers to academic study and research. To participate as an MMUF institution, school's leadership agreed that MMUF stipends would not be considered part of a fellow's financial aid package or reduce the fellow's financial aid. MMUF summer funding should not go toward the summer earnings portion of the standard financial-aid package. If there is an issue of MMUF stipends and summer financial aid, please contact your institution's administration (i.e., dean, provost) and/or financial aid office prior to contacting us. For more specific questions regarding appropriate uses of MMUF summer funds, please contact us directly.
A portion of a fellow's summer stipend can be used to support travel (domestic or international) to attend conferences, visit graduate schools, or attend a discipline-appropriate, research-based program or institution. Use of funds for travel does not apply to fellows who are traveling with the ultimate purpose of spending an academic semester/year abroad. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss a specific case.
The University of Chicago annually hosts the nine-week Summer Research Training Program for MMUF fellows, and UCLA hosts the six-week Writing and Research Training Program. Several MMUF institutions also host their own summer programs, including Barnard, Bowdoin, Bryn Mawr, Columbia, Hunter, Wesleyan, Williams, and the UNCF consortium/Emory University.
Other research-based programs include AALCI (University of Texas at San Antonio), Institute for Recruitment of Teachers (Phillips Academy), the Leadership Alliance (Consortium), MURAP (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), SILCS (Wheaton College), SROP (UC BErkeley and Northwestern), the Summer Humanities Institute (UCLA) and SURF (UC Irvine), among others; more information can be found here. Please contact us if you have a question concerning the suitability of other programs.
Each MMUF campus is strongly encouraged to incorporate into its program strategic lectures, courses or activities to assist fellows with the practical aspects of applying to graduate school. These may include GRE prep courses, guidance on writing personal statements, visits to nearby graduate schools or from graduate school recruiters, and connecting fellows with external graduate school preparation programs. Activities can be done at either the group or individual levels; the $600 one-time allocation for each fellow in your MMUF budget can either be pooled to finance a group activity or used individually by fellows.
Many universities that have undergraduate MMUF programs have informally agreed to provide fee waivers for Mellon fellows who apply to their graduate schools. We encourage you to contact coordinators and admissions offices at MMUF member institutions to which your fellows are applying to see if a fee waiver is available.
After graduating from college, MMUF fellows enter PhD programs at so many different graduate institutions that it would be impractical for the Mellon Foundation to funnel program support to them through their institutions, as the undergraduate MMUF program does. Instead, the Foundation provides graduate school support for MMUF fellows on a national level by awarding grants to two nonprofit organizations with long experience in administering academic programs: the Social Science Research Council, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.
With supervision from the MMUF staff, the SSRC and the IC&S then administer a broad array of events and grants designed to provide targeted support to fellows enrolled in eligible PhD programs and to those who have completed the doctorate. The MMUF program staffs at the SSRC and the IC&S thus fill roles in the lives of MMUF graduate students that are similar in some respects to the roles played during their undergraduate years by their campus coordinators.
For a downloadable timeline of SSRC and IC&S graduate events and grants, with eligibility details for each, please click below.
SSRC-IC&S Timeline
THE GRADUATE STUDENT SUMMER CONFERENCE
Since its inception in 1993, the Graduate Student Summer Conference has been the flagship event of the MMUF-SSRC Graduate Initiatives program. Mellon fellows in their first through third years of graduate school, along with graduating seniors who have been accepted into qualifying PhD programs, are eligible to attend; fellows may attend the event twice during their years of eligibility.
The conference provides a forum for skills exchange, cohort building, and the development of professional proficiencies such as delivering effective presentations and maximizing research support. The event exposes fellows to a broad range of institutional and intellectual issues and serves as a bridge between college and graduate school that strengthens fellows' dedication to pursuing a doctorate in one of the core arts and sciences, and supports their retention in the early graduate school years. For more than fifteen years, the conference has consistently proven itself to be an invaluable resource for early-stage graduate student fellows. Many past participants report gaining both a deep sense of renewal in their commitment to earning the PhD in the face of possible obstacles, and a scholarly community to which they may turn for support.
The conference provides tools and skills for navigating the early years of graduate school, for negotiating institutional and departmental politics, utilizing research resources at the graduate level, optimizing summer research opportunities, and identifying and working with mentors. Panel presentations of fellows' research, thematic roundtables, presentations by senior scholars, and other activities are also a part of the conference program. MMUF fellows who have completed PhDs contribute to the conference by serving as workshop leaders, panel discussants and moderators. The conference takes advantage of the intergenerational nature of the Mellon community, providing opportunities for younger fellows to interact with senior scholars. Such informal networking is crucial for allowing fellows to build peer and professional relationships that will serve them for years to come.
THE PROPOSAL WRITING AND DISSERTATION DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR
Building on the institutional strength of the SSRC as a pioneer in graduate student training, and on the mentoring component that distinguishes MMUF, the MMUF-SSRC Graduate Initiatives Program implemented a series of programs that target the specific needs of fellows as they progress toward the PhD. The first of these programs is the Proposal Writing and Dissertation Development Seminar (PWDDS), which strategically supports graduate students in their third through sixth years.
The PWDDS offers fellows opportunities for intensive exchange and feedback on work at two critical stages of graduate training: firstly, during the proposal writing process when students focus on formulating intellectually sound proposals which lend themselves to completion in a reasonable time frame and are competitive in fellowship contests; and secondly, during the dissertation-writing process, when the quality of data organization, synthesis and analysis is most essential. The proposal-writing and dissertation tracks take place in parallel during the week-long seminar, and participants are selected through a competitive application process. Significant time is allotted for individual work, and fellows present their projects to their respective groups several times. Fellows find that this intensive seminar is an ideal setting in which to receive collegial critique and feedback. Each past participant reports making significant progress on the dissertation project as a result of the work completed during the PWDDS, with over 90% later reporting having successfully defended their proposals or completed their dissertations in a timely manner.
THE GRADUATE WRITING SEMINAR
The Graduate Writing Seminar (GWS) was developed specifically to advance the progress of fellows doing graduate studies in South African universities. Participants work on a range of graduate writing projects required for the South African course of study, engaging in peer review and consulting with Mellon PhD faculty. The structure and outcomes are parallel to those of the Proposal Writing and Dissertation Development Seminar held in the U.S. each March. Participants leave the seminar with concrete next steps to help them progress in their writing projects and move forward in their pursuit of the graduate degree.
THE DISSERTATION WRITING RETREAT
A significant number of dissertation writers in MMUF report having created informal writing clusters of two, three or four fellows who maintained a regular schedule of contact and provided one another with substantive feedback on work according to a mutually developed calendar. The MMUF-SSRC Graduate Initiatives Program seeks to make a similar support network available to each dissertation-stage fellow in the sixth graduate year and beyond. To that end, the SSRC has instituted Dissertation Writing Retreats to round out their step-by-step series of program offerings. Held each year on the campus of an MMUF institution and facilitated by a Mellon PhD, the Dissertation Writing Retreat (DWR) brings together 12 to 15 post-sixth-year graduate students for five days of intensive writing. Writing will be punctuated by structured time for each fellow to create an individual 12-month workplan with other Retreat participants. The primary feature of the workplan will be a structure for accountability to colleagues; participants will establish a calendar by which to exchange new or revised work by email and provide one another with feedback on progress.
THE PREPARING FOR THE PROFESSIORIATE SEMINAR
THE PREDOCTORAL GRANTS
The Predoctoral Research Grants offer modest supplementary financial assistance to Mellon fellows to help support the quality and timely completion of their doctoral work - particularly at benchmark moments in their graduate educations. Two predoctoral awards of up to $5000 are offered to fellows receiving fellowships and other institutional support during the second through fifth graduate years; a special award of up to $2,500 is available for fellows beyond the sixth graduate year who are writing the dissertation. We recommend that fellows carefully plan how they will use their grant opportunities, as they have been designed to allow maximum flexibility. Fellows should consider how to best allocate the available funds during their years of eligibility.
The SSRC offers three types of predoctoral research grants: the Predoctoral Research Development (PRD) grant, the Graduate Studies Enhancement (GSE) grant, and the Dissertation Completion Grant (DCG). The PRD grant is available to second- through fifth-year students and is subject to a $3,000 maximum. (South African fellows are eligible for this grant in their first year.) It may be used for small-scale, preliminary research and other activities that support the early investigation of data sources, field sites, data sets and archival materials. The PRD may be received once per fellow.
The GSE grant is available to second- through fifth-year students and is subject to a $1,500 annual maximum. (South African fellows are eligible for this grant in their first year.) It may be used to defer the cost of conference travel, equipment, books, journal subscriptions, and other necessary supplies. The GSE may be awarded to an individual fellow up to four times. The sum of PRD and GSE grants may not exceed $5,000.
The DCG is a special award available to fellows in the seventh year of graduate study or beyond who receive little or no institutional support. The DCG is subject to a $2,500 maximum and may be received only once. Fellows must provide a timeline reflecting their plans to complete the dissertation within twelve months of the award date.
THE MMUF-SSRC LECTURE SERIES
The most important tenets of the MMUF program are mentoring and network-building. The MMUF-SSRC Lecture Series brings together undergraduates, coordinators, graduate students, and faculty in each region for intellectual engagement and community-building. Each talk gives a Mellon PhD the opportunity to share current research, while other attending fellows may capitalize on contact made at these events to build on their peer and professional networks and to continue to stay in communication with each other. A directory of all attendees is provided so that they may keep in touch with one another. The Lecture Series strengthens and sustains the Mellon Mays network, builds speakers' CVs, and showcases the work of Mellon fellows. To date, lectures have taken place in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and southern California.
THE TRAVEL AND RESEARCH GRANT
The MMUF-IC&S Travel and Research Grants, administered by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, are available to MMUF fellows enrolled in qualifying PhD programs. The grants provide eligible graduate students with the financial means to complete their research prior to the start of dissertation writing. Funding is for one summer or semester of travel and/or research support. Awards are based on the scholarly merit of the individual applications received.
The Travel & Research grants provide up to $5,000 for a period of one summer or one semester. Grants may be used to cover dissertation research, travel to/from research sites, and photocopying of documents and/or the purchase of access to databases for research purposes. The award may not be used to purchase computer software or hardware, and may not be used for general living expenses.
THE DISSERTATION GRANT
The MMUF-IC&S Dissertation Grants are available to MMUF fellows enrolled in eligible PhD programs. The grants provide graduate students at the critical ABD stage of their doctoral programs with support to spend a year finishing the writing of the dissertation.
The dissertation grant offers up to $20,000 for a 12-month period. Fellows are encouraged to apply for dissertation grants from their home institutions. Winners who do not receive dissertation support from their own institutions are eligible to receive the full amount. The grant will be reduced by funding from other sources to ensure that each awardee receives a maximum award from all sources of $20,000. The IC&S will ask graduate schools to waive tuition for winners of the Dissertation Grant. Candidates must arrange for their own health insurance coverage.
MMUF fellows who enter PhD programs in eligible fields are eligible for repayment of their undergraduate loan up to a maximum of $10,000. Only undergraduate debts accrued through Perkins, Stafford, Parent PLUS, or college loan programs qualify for repayment.
Only educational debts accrued through Stafford, Perkins, or other college loan programs qualify for repayment. The MMUF program will not repay private bank loans or personal loans. We tend not to make distinctions for consolidated or refinanced loans. If a fellow has less than $10,000 worth of undergraduate loans, they may receive the remainder of allocated loan repayment funds as payments on graduate loans.
Normally, fellows must be enrolled in a Ph.D. program to be eligible for loan repayments: terminal M.A. degrees do not qualify. However, fellows who complete MFA degrees that are research-based (not performance-based) in nature may be eligible for undergraduate loan repayments of up to $5,000 at the Foundation’s discretion. These funds can only be paid out upon completion of the MFA degree. Please notify us of all potential MFA loan repayment cases prior to granting a repayment.
Each undergraduate institution establishes its own procedure for facilitating the loan repayment process and record keeping; thus, fellows requesting loan repayment should contact the MMUF coordinator at their undergraduate institution to initiate the process. Each undergraduate coordinator works directly with their institution's undergraduate financial aid offices to disburse repayment funds. Generally, MMUF institutions require fellows to participate in an exit interview, during which time the undergraduate coordinators can familiarize student with their campus' loan repayment procedures and provide them with the necessary information to apply for repayment.
For each of the first four years of full-time enrollment in a qualifying PhD program, the Mellon Foundation, through fellows' undergraduate institutions, will repay one-eighth (up to $1,250) of fellows' undergraduate debts; thus, if students pursue full-time graduate study for four years, they will receive $5,000. When fellows complete the doctorate, they will qualify for an additional $5,000 payment, which must be requested within three years after their receipt of the PhD. Fellows are required to submit a loan deferment form and verify graduate enrollment when requesting payments.
If a fellow has undergraduate debt totaling less than $10,000, the remaining balance of loan repayment funds may be used to repay graduate loans. Graduate loans may only be repaid upon completion of the PhD. The total amount of loan repayment funds may not exceed $10,000 and may only be used toward designated educational loans from recognized lenders for graduate study.
Loan repayment and other continuing benefits of the MMUF program are available only to those fellows who enroll in PhD programs in eligible fields within 39 months of graduating from college. (Terminal master's programs are not eligible for loan repayment.) Fellows entering eligible PhD programs after being out of college longer than 39 months may write to the Associate Director of MMUF to be considered for continuing benefits on a case-by-case basis.
