Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP)

Program description

The Chancellor's Office provides support to promising doctoral students with a passion for working with California State University’s diverse student body, in the hope that they will go on to become CSU faculty. 

Participants in the program, Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) Fellows, are mentored by CSU Faculty Mentors and receive up to $30,000 in financial support through optional low interest loans. These loans are forgivable at a specified rate for CDIP Fellows who take faculty positions in the CSU after receiving their doctorates. 

• CDIP Fellows in good standing are eligible for up to three annual Mini-Grants of up to $2,500 each for professional development activities and $1,500 for conference attendance
• CDIP Faculty Mentors are eligible for funding to attend conferences with their CDIP Fellow at the rate of $1,500 per conference
• CDIP Fellows are eligible to apply for a $5,000 dissertation fellowship to assist with completion of the dissertation
• CDIP Fellows may apply for the CSU Pre-Professor Program (PREPP) which further prepares them to apply for CSU faculty positions and serve as CSU faculty

Visit the Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program website for more details. 

Application Overview Application Instructions 

Program benefits

Forgivable loans

The Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program offers loans of up to $10,000 per year for three years over a 5-year period. The loans are forgivable at the rate of 20 percent for each year of full-time postdoctoral teaching employment in the CSU and 10 percent for each year of part-time postdoctoral teaching employment in the CSU. 

A detailed description of the loan program can be found on the CDIP Loans page.

Mentorship 

The program its Fellows’ prospects through its mentorship component. Through collaborative teaching, research and/or service activities, faculty mentors 

• support CDIP Fellows’ successful completion of their doctorates
• enhance their potential for employment in a faculty position in the CSU 

Information about the faculty mentor’s role can be found on the CDIP Mentorship page. 

Mini-grants 

After the first year in the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program, CDIP Fellows making satisfactory academic progress and in good standing in their doctoral programs are invited to apply for Mini-Grants which provide up to $2,500 each for Fellows to implement activities collaboratively proposed by the faculty sponsor and fellow. Mini-grants may fund travels for research and professional activities, purchase of books, equipment, software and subscriptions for professional memberships and journals. Also available are Mini-Grants of up to $1,500 each for conference attendance and up to $1,500 each to support Faculty Mentors’ attendance at conferences with their CDIP Fellow. 

Fellows who have received a Mini-Grant in a prior year must have submitted a final report by the proposed deadline to be eligible for the current year’s funding. 

Eligible Fellows may submit a maximum of three Mini-Grant proposals over a period of four consecutive years. 

A detailed description of the Mini-Grant program can be found on the CDIP Professional Development & Grants page. 

Dissertation fellowship 

CDIP Fellows may apply for one ten $5,000 Dissertation Fellowships, which support doctoral completion in the final year of the dissertation.

Post-Ph.D. support 

CDIP Fellows may apply for post-doctoral support through the CSU Pre-Professor Program (PREPP), which prepares them to apply for CSU faculty positions and serve as CSU faculty.

Eligibility

Academic status 

The Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program is intended to support doctoral students who will pursue CSU instructional faculty positions. As such, those who meet one of the following criteria are eligible to apply to the CDIP:

• Undergraduate and master’s level graduate students in the application process to accredited doctoral programs in the United States
• New or continuing full-time doctoral students currently enrolled in accredited programs in the United States

CSU employment 

• Lecturers who are enrolled full-time in a doctoral program are eligible and encouraged to apply
  • Probationary or tenured faculty members in the CSU are not eligible, however, regardless of their status in a doctoral program
• Although enrollment or employment in the CSU is not required for participation in the program, approximately one-fourth of the awards are expected to be made to applicants who have served in the last two years in CSU positions represented by the California Faculty Association

Professional and online doctoral programs 

Applicants in professional doctoral degree programs (such as Ed.D., DNP, DPT, and PsyD), as well as online degree programs, may apply to the CDIP only if they plan to pursue a tenure-track instructional faculty position and their doctoral program’s mission explicitly includes preparation and training of future university faculty members (the application must provide evidence of this). 

Given that the CSU Ed.D. programs were established for the purpose of preparing administrative leaders for the California public education system (California Education Code 66040.3), applicants pursuing professional doctorates from CSU Ed.D. programs are not eligible to apply.​ Applicants in non-CSU Ed.D. programs may be eligible if their programs are explicitly designed to prepare university faculty and the applicant (and recommenders) can demonstrate that this is the case in the application.  

Citizenship 

• U.S. citizenship is not required, but applicants must be eligible to work in the United States
• Information about eligibility and selection criteria can be found on the CDIP Eligibility, Selection Criteria and Process page

Comparing the Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) and the California Pre-Doctoral Program

Overview of the differences between the CSU California Pre-Doctoral Program and the Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP):  

The Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program supports students (whether or not they have studied in the CSU) who are enrolled in, or applying to, Ph.D. programs who want to teach in the CSU after they receive their doctorates. It provides mentoring support for CDIP Fellows over a three-year period, mini-grants for research-related expenses and for conference attendance (including international conferences), including with their Faculty Mentor, and as well as optional low-interest loans that may be forgivable. CDIP Fellows may apply for a dissertation-year grant. 

CDIP Fellows may apply to participate in the CSU Pre-Professor Program (PREPP), a semester-long program that supports CDIP Fellows' transition to faculty positions by helping them learn what faculty life is like on a CSU campus. 

By contrast, the California Pre-Doctoral Program supports CSU undergraduates and graduate students who are studying in the CSU and want to go on for a Ph.D.  It provides mentoring support for these students, during the year in which they are named as California Pre-Doctoral Program (“Sally Casanova”) Scholars, and provides funding to attend conferences, visit Ph.D. programs in which they are interested, take GRE preparation courses, join professional organizations, subscribe to professional journals, and pay for Ph.D. program application fees. It also provides full funding for a summer research experience, if approved, following the Pre-Doctoral year.