Department of Sociology

Applications

1. All full time undergraduate and graduate students in good academic standing may apply for departmental scholarships and awards
2. All applications are due no later than 5pm on the first Monday of March; no late applications will be accepted
3. Applications must be typed and may be submitted electronically or hard copy
4. The chair of the committee will electronically notify an applicant upon receipt of her/his application; applicants' names, award sought, and submission date will be recorded when applications are received
5. Hard copies of all applications will be filed according to award in a departmental file cabinet drawer labeled “Scholarships”

Review process

1. The review process will begin immediately after the submission deadline
2. Only committee members will have access to applications
3. Each member of the committee will independently evaluate all applications using the evaluation criteria below, rating each item on a 4 point scale with a maximum score of 20
4. After all members have completed their evaluations, the committee will meet, discuss individual ratings, and come to a consensus on award decisions
5. The committee has the prerogative to grant the full amount of an award to one student, or divide the award monies between two or among more than two applicants
6. When appropriate, committee members may consult with faculty references identified on the application for more information or clarification

Evaluation criteria

All awards will be evaluated on the following criteria EXCEPT the Depew Travel, DeMartini Travel and Teaching, and Short awards. These awards will be evaluated on the criteria stated on the individual award webpages.

1. Eligibility – Does the applicant meet the eligibility criteria stated on the award page?
2. Fit – How well does the application match the stated purpose of the award?
3. Details – Does the application provide sufficient/specific detail (eg budget, experience, research plans, need, academic achievement) for adequate evaluation? If a proposal of anticipated research is required, the proposal must include your research question, a rationale for posing the question, a brief review of some of the relevant literature and how your research will fill a gap in this literature, a description of research/data collection methods, and analytic tools. For additional information on writing a proposal for dissertation research grants please see the note at the bottom of the page.*
4. Completeness – Does the application include everything requested on the award's webpage?
5. Presentation – Is the application written according to standard academic writing conventions? Is it well organized and neat?

Notification

1. After award decisions have been made, the committee chair will submit the list of awardees and non-awardees to the department Chair, Administrative Manager and Financial Officer
2. Administrative Manager will send a letter to each applicant thanking them for their submission and whether or not they were granted an award
3. In cases of multiply submissions one letter will be sent identifying which award(s) was granted and which were not
4. Administrative Manager and/or Chair will let all donors know who received their various awards
5. Awardees will write thank you notes to donors
6. Awardees' names and awards will be posted on a departmental bulletin board and honored at the Annual Spring Banquet in April

* The National Science Foundation is an excellent place to review well written research summaries by sociology graduate students from various universities. Go to --->:

Type "dissertation" in the SEARCH AWARD FOR box. This will give a list of funded dissertation grants by NSF. Click on a 'title' that belongs to the Sociology 'program.' You will see lots of proposal "summaries" that can serve as models for writing departmental award applications.