Home › Undergraduates › The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Duke › Eligibility
Mellon Alumni Pictured at the 10th Annual Black Graduate Student Organization Conference at Northwestern University L to R: Janaka Bowman, '03, Department of English, Northwestern University; McKinley Melton, '04, Department of African American Studies, University of Massachusetts; Crystal Sanders, '05, Department of History, Northwestern University |
Eligibility:
Applications are welcomed from Duke sophomores (class of 2010) who are:
- seriously considering Ph.D. programs in Mellon-supported areas (see list below), and
- who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States, and
- who have a 3.0 or higher GPA
Up to 5 Fellows are selected each spring.
The Mellon Foundation has identified the following selection criteria to be used by campus selection committees:
(1) Academic promise
(2) Interest in pursing an academic career in a Mellon-designated field of study (see below)
(3) Potential for serving as a mentor and teacher for a wide variety of students
(4) Race and ethnicity (in relation to underrepresentation in designated fields of study)
(5) Demonstrated commitment to increasing opportunities for underrepresented minorities, breaking down stereotypes, increasing cross-racial and ethnic understanding, and enabling others to better understand persons of different races and ethnicities
(6) Commitment to participating fully and enthusiastically in all aspects of the MMUF program, including attendance at conferences and meetings.
Finalists will be interviewed.
Only students working in the following areas are eligible to apply to the program:
- Core Humanities: American and English Literature, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Area Studies (e.g., African and Afro-American Studies, International Comparative Studies, Romance Studies, Women's Studies), History, Philosophy, Classics, Religion, Art History, Musicology
- Social Sciences: Cultural Anthropology, Demography, Political Theory, Sociology
- Physical Sciences: Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Earth Sciences, Ecology, Geology
The loan repayment component of the program will apply only to students who go on to study for Ph.D. degrees in the fields listed above. It cannot be used for Fellows who pursue doctorate degrees in other fields or professional degrees in medicine, law, or business.