Brown University



Dissertation Completion Proposal

Application Package

The Graduate School guarantees support for doctoral students in good standing for five years. Beyond this time period, support is neither automatic nor guaranteed. Even so, the Graduate School has limited funds to support tuition, health insurance costs and, sometimes, stipend support, in cases where no other funds are available. To seek such an award, students can in their fifth year apply by submitting a Dissertation Completion Proposal (DCP).

Students who are scheduled to hold research assistantships funded by external grants or contracts, or whose funding derives completely from other sources, do not need to submit a proposal. Before submitting a proposal, students should discuss the options with the program’s director of graduate study (DGS) and with the thesis advisor to explore the best option.

A complete application package consists of:

1. Dissertation Completion Proposal: Student section

2. Dissertation Completion Proposal: Program DGS Section

3. Dissertation Completion Proposal: Program Chair Section (one form per program)

4. Curriculum vitae

Students should complete the student section of the DCP package and submit it, together with a c.v., to the program DGS. The program should forward the complete package to the Graduate School by email to: graduate_dean@brown.edu.

All forms are due at the Graduate School by 5:00 pm on the second Friday in March.

Dissertation Completion Proposal: Student Section

Name             Department                          

1. Have you identified an appointment opportunity from the list found on the Dissertation Completion Proposal page of the Graduate School website?      

If “yes,” please answer the following questions. (If “no,” skip to question #2.)

1a) What is the opportunity you have selected?

                                                                           

                                                                           

1b) Is this opportunity for the Fall or the Spring semester, or both?

                                                                           

                                                                           

1c) Who is writing to endorse and support your selection, and what is their position relative to that opportunity?

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

2. External Funding: Have you received external funding while a graduate student at Brown? Please list awards, academic year of award, and dollar amounts. Please indicate whether you have received a top-up from the Graduate School for external funding.

                                                                           

                                                                           

3. Background: Explain why additional time is needed to complete your dissertation. (250 words or less)

                                                                           

                                                                           

4. Academic achievements: Provide evidence for your academic achievements during your doctoral studies at Brown. This should include, if applicable, a list of publications that resulted from your work, of presentations at conferences or other scholarly work, and of any internal competitive fellowships that you may have been awarded. Describe how far you have advanced toward your dissertation. Explain where you stand in regard to necessary field work and research. Describe what part of the dissertation is written. (500 words or less)

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

5. Financial need: Briefly describe your financial situation and why 6th year support is needed. (200 words or less)

Are you an international student who has specific visa requirements?           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

6. Dissertation completion plan: Describe your plan for completing the dissertation. If applicable, how will you balance teaching obligations, dissertation writing, and preparation of job application packages? Please include a timeline for completion of the dissertation including the defense. Keeping in mind that the Graduate School will not provide stipend funding beyond the 6th year, your proposed timeline should be as honest and realistic as possible. (500 words or less)

Planned date of the dissertation defense:                

Date

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

Budget Proposal

Please understand that availability of funds is limited. While the Graduate School will make an effort to find funds, no assurances can be made.

Notes:

• Exact dollar amounts for the upcoming academic year (AY) are not yet determined. The given numbers are estimates.

• You may leave the last two columns blank if you have no other funding sources and if you don’t know the departmental contribution.

|Option |Value |Requested from the Graduate |Provided by other sources |Comment (explain ‘other |

| | |School | |sources’) |

|Summer Only |Up to 1/3 of AY |                |                |                     |

| |stipend | | | |

|Health insurance |≈ $ 3,300 |                |                |                     |

|Fall Term | | | | |

|Tuition |≈ $ 21,000 |                |                |                     |

|Health Fee |≈ $ 330 |                |                |                     |

|Stipend |≈ $10,500 |                |                |                     |

|Spring Term | | | | |

|Tuition |≈ $ 21,000 |                |                |                     |

|Health Fee |≈ $ 330 |                |                |                     |

|Stipend |≈ $10,500 |                |                |                     |

|TOTAL | |                |                |                     |

Are there any other things that the review committee should know about? (Please explain briefly)

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

I acknowledge that I have the primary responsibility for the successful completion of my degree. I will seek guidance from my advisor, dissertation committee, DGS and others to complete my dissertation along the time line as described above.  I understand that additional stipend funding beyond the amounts requested will not be available through the Graduate School.

                                                        

Signature                                        Date

Dissertation Completion Proposal: Program (DGS) Section

Name of Student                           Department                          

Summary statement: Is this student in ‘good standing’? Yes No

1. Please comment on the student’s rationale for why a 6th year is needed. (100 words).

The student’s explanation is strongly moderately weakly supported by the program.

                                                                           

                                                                           

2. Please comment briefly on the student’s performance in the program to date. (100 words).

Over all, the student’s performance is excellent strong moderate weak.

                                                                           

                                                                           

3. Please comment briefly on the student’s dissertation completion plan, the reasonableness of the timeline and the likelihood to get done within the proposed timeline.

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

                                                                           

We acknowledge that while the student has primary responsibility for the successful completion of his/her degree, we commit to helping him/her meet the goals of the Dissertation Completion Proposal and satisfy graduation requirements during the proposed period of funding by the Graduate School.  We are committed to meeting with the student on a regular basis and providing resources as appropriate, in order for him/her to conduct and complete dissertation research and writing during this time period.

Name of DGS                 Signature                           Date      

Dissertation Completion Proposal: Program (Chair) Section – one per program

Support for students beyond the five-year guarantee is seen as a shared responsibility of the program and the Graduate School. The Graduate School requests that if at all possible, some departmental contributions be made.

Please rank the support requests and verify the program’s contribution. If your program opposes a ranking, you may leave that field blank.

|Student Name |Priority ranking |Cost share by the department |Any comments |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

|                     |                |                     |                               |

| TOTAL |Total |                     | |

Chair of the department                 Signature                      Date      

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download