Law School Stipends
The Law School pays a number of institutional stipends each year, including academic fellowship stipends paid to Rubenstein Scholars and JSD and MLS degree candidates, and summer fellowship stipends paid to students pursuing summer public interest positions.
Payment Timeline
Unless told otherwise by Law School administration, all Law School academic fellowship stipends are evenly allocated over the three quarters of the academic year (Autumn, Winter, and Spring). Summer public interest fellowship stipends are typically paid in a lump sum.
Stipends are released centrally by the University. In other words, stipend funding is requested by the Law School and subsequently processed and released by the University Payroll Office according to the University’s biweekly payroll calendar. The Law School requests stipend releases in accordance with the biweekly payroll calendar as follows:
- Academic fellowship stipends (Rubenstein, JSD, and MLS): the Friday biweekly paydate immediately prior to the start of the applicable quarter
- Summer public interest fellowship stipends: the mid-June biweekly paydate
The above requested release dates are anticipated release dates. The University Payroll Office may not be able to release stipend funding for this paydate if a student does not complete the required documentation as requested by Payroll in a timely manner. Anticipated stipend release dates for the academic year are outlined on the Law School Financial Aid calendar, available on the Financial Aid homepage.
Payment Process and Documentation
Students who are awarded stipend funds must complete additional documentation with the University Payroll Office prior to funds being released. This documentation usually only needs to be submitted once, prior to the first stipend, but students may only have a few days turnaround time to finalize any outstanding items before the biweekly pay period close.
When the Law School requests a stipend, the student will receive an email notification from the Law School. Once Payroll receives the stipend request (typically a few days later), they will send email notifications to the student about any documentation required to approve the stipend. Payroll's notification emails will come from uchicago@service-now.com and will reference a “Student Stipends, Prizes, & Awards Form Request”. It is very important that the student is checking their UChicago email account for these email notifications from the UChicago Service Desk to finalize any additional documentation in a timely manner.
Once your documentation has been processed and/or the stipend is approved by Payroll, you will receive an email from the UChicago Service Desk that your stipend ticket has been closed. When you receive this email, you should have access to Workday, if you didn't already. Workday is the University's human resources system and the system through which Payroll releases stipend funding. When you receive the "ticket closed" notification email, you should complete the following tasks in Workday:
- Verifying/updating the student's address in Workday
- Setting up direct deposit in Workday
Additional guidance and step-by-step guides on these tasks can be found on the UChicago GRADHelp website.
Additional Resources
Stipend funding from the Law School is generally classified as fellowship funding and not as pedagogical or research training. Therefore, Law School stipend funding is considered self-reported funding and federal taxes are not withheld, unless you are a non-US resident student without a tax treaty. Students may need to make estimated tax payments, particularly students who are considered US residents for tax purposes and receive a significant amount of fellowship stipend funding. The Law School cannot offer tax guidance or tax assistance so we encourage to reach out to an accountant or other tax professional with any questions.
You can view detailed records of all payments made to you via Workday, and confirm amounts paid by calendar/tax year, by accessing your payslips in Workday. You can find more information on the stipend process and Workday steps on the UChicago GRADHelp website, and links to applicable documentation on the University’s Financial Services website.