Omari Keeles
Ph.D. Candidate
Education and Psychology

“I keep telling new students that my advisor told me anything dealing with research here shouldn’t come out of my pocket – and the University’s held to that. The resources at U-M are phenomenal – the stipend packages lead the country, but when it comes to things like conference travel, or emergency funds – that has made the experience that much greater. It lessens the stress of being a student. It has taken stress away from figuring out how I’ll pay my bills. People don’t realize how that relates to the ability to do great work, but at U-M they are very aware of that connection and that’s why they are so adamant about provided this support. Even outside of the Rackham Merit Fellowship, there is great encouragement to apply for other funding and the support is great, even with a template for how to apply. But it’s not just funding, it is things like dissertation writing workshops and office space.”

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