Fellowships and Financial Support for Students in the MILR, MPS, MS and PhD Graduate Degree Programs
The ILR school may offer the following endowed and school funded fellowships, scholarships and awards to ILR graduate degree students.
Endowments, Gifts and Donations
Cyrus S. Ching Fellowship – A partial scholarship endowed in 1956 in honor of Cyrus S. Ching, by his friends to benefit ILR Graduate students based on academic performance, financial need or ability in research.
Citigroup Fellowship – A gift from Citigroup to partially fund a MILR degree program student
Boyd and Virginia Ferguson Fellowship – An endowed fellowship to be awarded to a MILR degree program student.
Dorothy Funt Memorial Fellowship – A partial merit based scholarship awarded to a MILR candidate with interest in the areas of dispute resolution and collective representation. Preference is given to a first year student who exemplifies the qualities and principles that distinguished Ms. Funt including hard work, perseverance and a positive outlook. The fellowship was established in 1975 to honor the memory of Dorothy Funt, B.A., 1932. Dorothy Funt was born in Belgium in 1911. Her parents emigrated to the United States in the early 1920s. She attended public schools in New York City and enrolled in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences in 1928. After graduation she went on to graduate work at New York University with expectation that she would be a teacher. Instead she was employed by the City of New York in the Department of Social Welfare, where she held a variety of jobs. In 1945 she joined Martin E. Segal Company as an administrative assistant. Her first important assignment was to develop the procedures for the administration of one of the first multi-employer health and welfare funds covering more than 40,000 hotel workers in New York City. She soon became a leading employee benefit consultant who developed some of the early innovative techniques to provide health, disability and life insurance for workers covered under collective bargaining agreements in a wide variety of industries, like baking, trucking, maritime, construction and manufacturing. Over the years she advanced at the Segal Company to become a Senior Vice President and member of the Board of Directors. She was a brilliant, creative and caring person. She died shortly after retiring from the Segal Company on September 2, 1974. To honor her memory Martin E. Segal Company, and many of her friends there, have endowed this fellowship, knowing how deeply she cared about the hopes and aspirations of those just starting their careers.
Walter Galenson PhD Fellowship in Labor Economics – This endowed fellowship was established in 2000 in memory of Walter Galenson by his family, to support a tuition fellowship for an outstanding entering PhD student in Labor Economics
Sara Gamm Graduate Student Fellowship – Established in 2005 to support graduate students in the ILR School who are pursuing studies leading to a Masters or PhD Degree. Students eligible for consideration should come from union, labor or employee association backgrounds and demonstrate interest in pursuing the study of the labor movement or plan to pursue a career in the labor movement. The fund may be used to provide fellowships, assistantships in teaching, research or extension and special awards that may include such activities as off campus thesis research and summer fellowships.
John P. and Althea Halan Scholarship – A fund used to provide financial assistance to deserving students pursuing the MILR Degree.
Emil and Margaret Mesics Graduate Student Fund – This fund was established in 1994 to be used in support of ILR graduate students who are pursuing study leading to a Masters or PhD Program. The fund may be used for fellowships, teaching, research or extension and special awards including off campus thesis research and summer fellowships.
Benjamin R. Miller Memorial Fund – An endowed fund providing awards to deserving ILR graduate students requiring financial support for research activities leading to completion of their theses. Support may be used for travel, maintenance in field, data processing, printing, postage or other expenses incurred in pursuing research.
Francis Perkins (Telluride) Fellowship – Telluride Association provides full room and board scholarships at the Telluride house. ILR offers the Francis Perkins Tuition Scholarship to any ILR student awarded the Telluride Scholarship. For application information, please visit http://www.tellurideassociation.org/.
The Lawrence Williams Fellowship – Each year up to three fellowships are offered, to top MILR applicants, from a generous endowment by former faculty Professor Lawrence Williams. Each of these fellowships provides full tuition, and a stipend for living expenses for the first year of study in the MILR Degree Program. An application for MILR Degree Program admission serves as the application for this fellowship.
ILR School and SUNY Funded
SUNY and ILR Diversity Fellowships – Special fellowships designed to increase the diversity of Cornell's graduate student population may be available on a competitive basis to U.S. citizens or permanent residents. To be considered for these awards, please submit a supplemental essay with your application that addresses how the following criteria apply to you: 1) a history of overcoming disadvantage; 2) first-generation college student; 3) raised in a single-parent household; 4) member of an underrepresented minority group (American Indian or Alaskan native, Black/African American, Mexican American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Puerto Rican, Other Hispanic). First-year funding, which is merit-based, may be available to members of the underrepresented ethnic groups listed above who are not offered support through other channels. Continued support for the second year of study may be available and is contingent upon satisfactory performance.
ILR Dean's Tuition Fellowship – Highly qualified applicants to the MILR Degree Program may be offered an ILR Dean’s Tuition Fellowship, which provides a waiver of half of the Cornell Tuition for 2 years of study. An application for MILR Degree Program admission serves as the application for this fellowship.
ILR Dean's MS/PhD Travel Grants – This fund provides up to $2000 per year to ILR MS and PhD students for travel to conferences at which they have been invited to present a paper. Students may apply for this grant once per year.
Teaching and Research Assistantships – A teaching or research assistantship may be available to qualified students in their second year of study in the MILR Degree program. The availability of these positions varies and placement is determined by the the needs of the college and qualifications of the applicants. Openings will be announced and applications will be solicited each semester for available positions in the following semester.
CAHRS Graduate Assistantships – The Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) hires MILR students as Graduate Assistants. These positions offer a second semester graduates, with a concentration in HR, the opportunity to work on high-visibility projects with some of 50 human resource executives whose companies sponsor CAHRS, under the direction of the CAHRS Director, Managing Director, and the CAHRS Visiting Executive.
For additional tuition and financial aid information: Please visit the Cornell Bursar webpage for detailed financial information about tuition and fees. The Graduate school also has a helpful Fellowships and Financial Aid website.