Three Harvard graduates have received grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for graduates study in the humanities next year. The fellowships--awarded for the first time this year--will cover tuition and fees and provide an additional stipend of $7000.

Michael A. Lipson '80, Thomas J. Dunlap '82, and Robert E. Livingston '82 were named Mellon Fellows March 27, along with 93 other college seniors and recent graduates in the United States and Canada.

Professor of History Steven Ozment, who served on the selection committee for the New England region, said yesterday the Foundation established the one-year renewable fellowships" to encourage bright undergraduates who might be going to law or business school to go to graduate school in the humanities instead."

Dunlap said yesterday he will pursue a doctorate in history next year at Harvard. Lipson and Livingston, who were unavailable yesterday, plan to study comparative literature.

The Mellon Foundation plans to offer as many as 600 fellowships in the humanities over the next five academic years.