Fellowships and Assistantships
- All applicants are considered for Graduate School Fellowships and for departmental support including a stipend, tuition remission, and health insurance.
- The University offers several fellowships/assistantships for which our applicants are highly competitive. In order to be considered for these awards, we need to have your application by mid January. Students who apply later may still be considered for departmental research and teaching assistantships but the deadline for University awards may have passed. Students receiving support from the department are assigned to faculty to help with their research and teaching. First year students may grade and hold office hours but do not formally teach.
- Beginning in the second year, most students are teaching assistants for the large principles classes or for one of the first-year graduate classes. A few students teach independent sections of undergraduate courses. Faculty with grants and contracts also hire graduate students as research assistants.
- Our offer letters provide a commitment of support through the fifth year to students who remain in good academic standing and who have been diligent in their previous assignments. (In years with high undergraduate enrollments, we have been able to provide support for more advanced students.) Graduate students who do not receive financial support in the first year may apply for assistantships in future years. Please note that funding for students who are unable to teach is very limited.
In order to remain in good academic standing students are expected to complete the required core classes (or equivalent) in each semester of the first year, to complete three PhD level courses in each semester of the second year, and to complete any remaining required courses in the third year. All course schedules must be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).
In addition, students are expected to pass the qualifying exams by the end of the second semester of the second year and the major field exam/paper by the end of the second semester of the third year. After that, students must make good progress on the dissertation each semester.
Students who receive three L grades or one F grade are academically ineligible to continue in the Graduate School, as are students who fail any of the doctoral written or oral exams (doctoral written exam, doctoral oral exam, oral defense of the thesis). Students who are off-schedule for any reason should meet with the DGS to discuss what is expected.
Students enroll in the department’s Teacher Training Program when they begin teaching. The first module of the program is for students who are teaching assistants under the direction of a faculty instructor. The second module is for graduate students who will be teaching an independent section of one of our undergraduate classes.
Revised 3/2/2016