The Graduate School offers fellowships to nominated graduate students at the University of Tennessee as added support for expenses incurred while engaged in their program. The relationship between fellowships and financial aid may have impacts that you should be aware of.
Estimated Cost of Attendance
You may already know that if you are receiving student loans (federal or private), your total financial aid cannot exceed UT’s total estimated cost of attendance.
If you receive a fellowship, it will be disbursed to your student account together with any other financial aid and scholarships that you may be receiving. As a result, this fellowship, along with any scholarships or fee waivers, is included in the calculation of your total financial aid.
Since this funding is added to your existing financial aid (which may include student loans), loans may be reduced to keep you within the allowable maximum for financial aid. If this occurs after a school year has begun, it might include reductions to already disbursed loan funds. You may owe money back to UT that will appear in MyUTK.
Outstanding Charges
Half of your annual award will be applied to your student account at the beginning of each semester. If you have any unpaid charges at the time of disbursement, the fellowship will be applied towards those outstanding charges.
If there are any excess funds remaining, those monies will be made available to you approximately one week after the funds are disbursed. Signing up for direct deposit in MyUTK can avoid any delays. This is an additional direct deposit setup, separate from payroll.
Tax Responsibility
The amount of your fellowship award might result in a having potential tax responsibility, when filing your federal income tax return. Please visit the IRS for more details.
If your fellowship payments are used to cover educational expenses, keep your receipts. These may be needed for filing income tax.
If a fellowship also includes a fee waiver, the value of the waiver is factored into the annual limit on allowable financial aid. For information regarding fee waivers associated with graduate assistantships, please see the Graduate Catalog.
If you have questions, you can contact One Stop Student Services at onestop@utk.edu or 865-974-1111.