Can funding from accepted students not enrolling be given to one who is?

[PolicyGrad92]

Don't know if anyone has the answer to this.

 

In some places I have read that they anticipate this scenario and offer funding in such a way that yield adjusts for the surplus funding offered.

 

But in many instances I have read about a particular named fellowship becoming available when a student is not enrolling and this is given to another student who has expressed strong interest in attending the school with more funding.

 

Any one has any insight to this? How does one discuss this with the Office?

[TakeruK]

The answer to your title question is "sometimes" and "it depends". For example, some fellowships are really just a fancy name for money awarded by the department. That is, the department might have a pot of money to pay for 4 students, so the top 4 students will get a "fellowship". Or, at other programs, everyone is partially funded by the department so everyone has some "fellowship" money. In these cases, the department controls where the money goes so it's easy for them to redirect the money to whatever student they want.

 

But in other cases, the fellowship is coming from a source outside of the department (e.g. campus-wide). In these cases, often departments have a quota of how many names they can submit for an award and the University sets the quota knowing some number of students will decline. So, if a student who is offered one of these types of fellowships decline, then the department loses that spot and cannot offer the money to someone else. This often results in the department waiting to hear if you have accepted first before nominating you for this award.

 

As to your last question--what do you mean by "how does one discuss this with the Office?". You don't. You just let them know if you are interested in attending and/or if you are asking for increased funding. If they are able to find increased funding for you, they will make the offer. You don't get involved in who gets which fellowship etc.