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Roy H. Park Fellowships
Thanks to the generous funding of the Triad Foundation of Ithaca, N.Y., the Roy H. Park Fellowships were first given in 1997. Each year, the fellowships fund seven or eight new doctoral students and 10 or 11 incoming residential master's students. Fellows receive:
- Stipends. In 2011-12, the annual stipend for a doctoral student was $20,500 and for a master's student $14,000.
- Payment of tuition.
- Health insurance.
- Funding for research and travel to professional and academic conferences for doctoral fellows.
- All M.A. students, not just Park Fellows, may apply for travel/research money: to present a paper at a conference, for thesis research travel or cost incurred to do M.A. research.
Doctoral student funding extends over the three years of the program (two years of course work and one year for dissertation work), and master's student funding covers two years. All Roy H. Park Fellows work as graduate assistants during their time on campus. These assistantships require 15 hours per week, and assignments vary according to the needs of the school and faculty, and the interests and skill levels of the students.
Continued funding by the school depends upon a student maintaining maintaining at least a P average in all course work. Any L received must be balanced by an H by the end of one year. Students also are expected to do good work in their assistantship in order to keep their funding.
Summer funding for courses is no longer available.
Roy H. Park Fellowships are available only to U.S. citizens. There is no special application for these fellowships. All persons qualified for admission to the graduate program automatically will be considered for Roy H. Park Fellowships, but only the most qualified students in terms of GRE scores, grades, and previous professional and academic experience will be chosen.
If an applicant wishes to be considered for funding offered by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he or she must attend the personal interview and the information sessions held in Chapel Hill. Only in rare circumstances (such as a family emergency or being out of the country for a job) will a phone interview be conducted. Notification will be sent to those candidates to alert them of the dates of the interviews. Decisions will be made shortly after the interviews, and final notification of selection will be sent to those selected to be Roy H. Park Fellows as quickly as possible.
