Donors Raise $50 Million for Ph.D. Fellowships After FAS Admissions Cuts

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has raised $50 million from donors to endow new Ph.D. fellowships, an effort to stabilize graduate funding months after the school sharply reduced doctoral admissions amid financial pressure.

The initiative, announced Tuesday, aims to raise a total of $100 million by June 30 to create 50 new endowed fellowships. The push follows decisions last fall by FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra to cut Ph.D. admissions across divisions for the next two years, citing instability in research funding and a higher federal endowment tax.

The $50 million in matching funds include a lead gift from Alfred Lin ’94, managing partner of venture capital firm Sequoia, and Rebecca Lin ’94. The pool also included contributions from Rui Dong ’05, a former managing director at investment firm D.E. Shaw, and Brian D. Young ’76, founding partner at private equity firm Eos. New donations to create named fellowships will be matched through the challenge.

FAS spokesperson James M. Chisholm said that the fellowships will support Ph.D. candidates across all three FAS divisions, as well as the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Allocation among the divisions and SEAS has not yet been finalized and is partly dependent on donor preferences, he added.

By relying on donor-backed endowments, the initiative would allow the FAS to support graduate students without further straining its budget. The fundraising effort was mobilized in eight weeks, a pace Hoekstra praised during a faculty meeting Tuesday — while cautioning that its long-term success remains uncertain.

“We are running an experiment that may or may not work,” Hoekstra said.

History professor Sugata Bose welcomed the influx of donor support but questioned how — and when — the funds would be used. He urged administrators to deploy some of the money immediately to admit exceptional Ph.D. students during the ongoing admissions cycle.

In October, the FAS slashed Ph.D. admissions across divisions by more than 50 percent for the following two years. The Sciences division initially faced a 75 percent reduction, which administrators later walked back to 50 percent after faculty objections.

Bose said during the meeting that departments have had to reject candidates who likely would have been admitted in another year.

“I’ve never seen such rare talent not being admitted — such talented candidates on a waitlist, when under normal circumstances they would be on an admit list,” he said.

At the Tuesday meeting, Hoekstra declined to commit to using new fellowship funds to admit students this cycle, but said the endowments would help lift admissions levels above their current reduced state in future years.

“Gifts made in the coming months could support new PhD students as early as the next academic year,” Chisholm wrote in a statement. “Some donors have already chosen to make current use gifts that will allow us to expand PhD support beginning next fall.

The FAS is facing ongoing financial difficulties, including a $365 million structural deficit. The school has already implemented other cost-cutting measures such as vacating rented space, holding spending flat, and pausing new faculty hires for fiscal year 2026.

—Staff writer Abigail S. Gerstein can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @abbysgerstein and Signal at abbysg.97.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @amannmahajan and Signal at amannsm.38.