Graduate Recruitment Funds
Please note: Graduate Studies will not reimburse for canceled travel costs (airfaRE, hotel, conference registration, etc.)
Graduate Studies offers departments and programs two different forms of competitive recruitment funds: the Recruitment Travel Grant and the Diversity and Distinction Award. All departments and programs may apply for a Diversity and Distinction Award as separate from their Recruitment Travel Grant. A final report must be submitted to provide data in relation to admissions. Reports are due by May 16, 2025.
Graduate Recruitment Travel Grants
Preferred deadline: February 21, 2025
Graduate Studies encourages graduate programs to bring prospective students to campus where they can meet with faculty, see the campus, attend a class, and speak with current graduate students.
Graduate Studies will award up to $900 per prospective student, pending final budget, for a recruitment visit. The funds are for the prospective student’s travel only (no group meals, no charges incurred by current students, faculty, or staff).
Departments must submit funding requests for the entire department (requests from disciplines, area concentrations, etc. will not be accepted).
Funding requests should explain plans for hosting the recruiting visits.
Deadline and Submission Information:
Priority requests are due February 21, 2025 at 5:00 pm. Please submit via Infoready.
For those departments that have application deadlines after February 15, good faith funding requests are acceptable.
Reporting:
A final report must be submitted to provide data in relation to admissions. Reports are due by May 16, 2025.
Diversity and Distinction Awards
Deadline: March 15
Graduate Studies remains committed to providing supplemental funding to recruit outstanding underrepresented minority students who have been admitted to a UNM graduate program. These supplemental funds are competitive, limited, and require departments to identify a prospective student early in the admissions window and nominate that student for supplemental funding.
The award amount will be $5,000.00 annually for two years.
Applications must be submitted by the department chair or graduate program director and include:
- An explanation of the exceptional potential for the student to succeed in graduate education, including a brief rationale for nominating the student(s);
- Confirm offer of an assistantship of at least .50 FTE
- Demonstrate the department’s commitment to the student’s success (i.e., naming of an advisor; peer mentoring programming; or available research/travel funds for graduate students).
The Diversity and Distinction award is not contingent on the prospective student holding a competing offer of graduate admissions. Instead, departments should immediately identify a highly qualified underrepresented student at the start of the admissions cycle; nominate that student for supplemental funds; and, if awarded by Graduate Studies, offer the student the supplemental funds as incentive to accept UNM’s offer of admission.
While departments may nominate two qualifying students in ranked order of preference, only one award will be allocated to selected departments.
Submit questions to grad@unm.edu.
