2010 Professional Science Master's Laurels Scholarship

Applications are sought for the OSU Professional Science Master’s Laurels Scholarship, which will be awarded to continuing PSM graduate students.  This scholarship will be given for graduate study in one of the four PSM programs at OSU during winter and spring terms 2010:

• Environmental Sciences
• Applied Biotechnology,
• Applied Systematics in Botany, or
• Applied Physics.

The scholarship will provide full or partial tuition remission for one or more terms during the academic year for resident or non-resident as well as international graduate students. This scholarship cannot be given in addition to a departmental graduate teaching or research assistantship, and previous recipients are not eligible to apply.  Recipients must be in full-time (minimum 12 credits per term) degree-seeking status in the same graduate program in order to remain eligible for this scholarship.  Audit registrations, course withdrawals, and registration for e-campus or summer term courses may not be used to satisfy enrollment requirements.

One or more scholarships will be awarded for winter and spring 2010 terms, depending on the qualifications and financial needs of the applicants.  Academic merit, diversity, and socioeconomic need are all scholarship criteria.

Academic merit may be established as follows:

• Be regularly, conditionally, or provisionally admitted to a PSM graduate program;
• Be in good standing as a graduate degree-seeking student in the specified degree program; and
• Demonstrate a high potential for success in the program by:
  • GRE scores and programmatic GPA,
  • Submitting a clear statement of purpose,
  • Having two strong letters of recommendation,
  • Exhibiting a record of scholarship in his/her academic field or profession (e.g., publications, presentations, research grants, honors and awards, etc.), and
  • Maintaining graduate standards for satisfactory academic progress toward the degree.  

Diversity criteria include:

• Is an individual from a cultural and linguistic background or gender that is underrepresented in their graduate program,
• Primary language used at home is other than English,
• Exhibits a record of positive engagement with communities that are underrepresented in higher education, and
• Has interest in using the diversity of human experience as an education resource in teaching and research.  

Socioeconomic needs include: 

• Coming from a socioeconomic background that is underrepresented in their graduate program,
• Documented financial need (based on FAFSA application for domestic students) with consideration of low income status, and
• First generation to attend a college or university.   

Those interested in applying may download a scholarship application form online. 

The following items must accompany the completed application:

1. Application form with a statement of the student's academic goals and information addressing one or more of the three scholarship criteria described above, and
2. Two letters of recommendation and copy of most recent transcript (fall 2009).  

Please contact Dr. Ursula Bechert with questions.  Students should submit complete application packets to: Professional Science Master’s Program, 2082 Cordley Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331.  

Deadlines: All application materials must be received by 5:00 pm on the 17 December 2009.

Late submissions will not be considered.

Decisions will be made on or before the 23rd of December.