Applicant Information

Fellowship Financial Support

May 27, 2024

Overview

Fellows receive up to $90,000 in financial support toward their graduate education. The award is divided into tuition support ($40,000) and stipend support ($50,000). Tuition is paid directly to the university and stipends are paid to the Fellow. Fellowship support is spread out over two academic years (four semesters or six quarters).

The Fellowship is not able to answer financial support questions regarding specific applicants’ situations. Once an applicant is awarded the Fellowship, the program will work with them to ensure they receive the most financial support possible.

Goals of PD Soros Financial Support

The main goal of the financial support provided by PD Soros is to enable its Fellows to take advantage of educational opportunities that they might not be able to without our support and to graduate with as little debt as possible. We are also happy to support universities by offsetting some university-based tuition and stipend support. (See below for details).

Stipends

Each Fellow receives up to $25,000 per year in stipend support for up to two years and can be divided into two semester payments or three quarter payments. Stipends are paid directly to the Fellows. There is a cap on a Fellows stipend support from all sources.

Year one stipend cap, whichever is higher:

$50,000 or $10,000 above the stipend they would have received without PD Soros support

Year two stipend cap:

$50,000

Tuition

Each Fellow receives up to $20,000 per year in tuition support for up to two years: $10,000 per semester or $6,667 per quarter. Tuition covers a maximum of 50% of tuition and fees. The total tuition support a Fellow receives (PD Soros and other funding) cannot exceed the total charges on their tuition statement. Tuition is paid directly to the university.

Fellows Receiving Financial Support from their University or Other Fellowships

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (PD Soros) works with all PD Soros Fellows who are receiving financial support from their university and other fellowships to create a customized financial support package so that the Fellow can receive the most financial support possible.

PD Soros’s financial goal is to provide each PD Soros Fellow with $25,000 in stipend support a year (all stipend awards are capped at $50,000 per year), as well as 50 percent of required tuition and fees, up to $20,000 per year, for one to two years.

The following principles should guide both the university and PD Soros in determining a Fellow’s financial package:

While PD Soros is delighted to support universities and sees them as critical partners, the primary goal of the stipend and tuition funding provided by PD Soros is to benefit the Fellowship recipients.
PD Soros is aware that universities may also receive a financial benefit by having PD Soros’s stipend and tuition funding replace some university funding.
PD Soros encourages universities to keep stipend funding offered to PD Soros Fellows in their financial aid packages in place (at pre-award rates); universities are discouraged from reducing their aid in response to PD Soros’s funding.
If universities do reduce a PD Soros Fellow’s stipend funding, it may not be by more than $10,000 a year. Reductions of more than $10,000 year will result in the university forfeiting the Fellow’s tuition support provided by PD Soros.
PD Soros’s hope is that a Fellow who is also receiving financial support from their university will realize a net benefit of at least $30,000 from PD Soros’s funding over their two years as a Fellow. PD Soros realizes, however, that some PD Soros Fellows who are receiving generous financial support from other sources will receive less. At minimum, a Fellow should receive a net benefit of at least $10,000 from PD Soros’s funding.
In no case may a university receive a net benefit of more than $60,000 from PD Soros’s funding.
PD Soros tuition support will only replace university funding once full tuition has been met. In other words, PD Soros’s tuition funding is considered “last dollar” until full tuition is met. (This means that universities cannot pull back their tuition support unless the student’s tuition is fully covered. Universities cannot both replace their funding with PD Soros funding AND leave a student with only partial tuition coverage. Universities can only replace their own funding with PD Soros funding once full turion has been covered.