He received his A.B. in 1929, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa; he also received an M.A. in 1930 from the University of Nebraska. He was granted a teaching fellowship by the University of Nebraska in the political science department while pursuing work to prepare for his doctoral degree. In 1931, Fellman transferred to Yale University, having been the recipient of the Cowles fellowship in government. He studied political theory under Dr. Francis Coker, then a scholarship in philosophy in 1932, then the Sterling fellowship in government in 1933. He was awarded the Ph.D. from Yale University in 1934.