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Financial Support

Fellowship Support

Fellowship support is provided to students in order that they might pursue their academics without having to earn an income. Most first year students receive department fellowships unless they have their own source of funding outside of the university. Advanced year students going on the job market are encouraged to apply for SIEPR dissertation fellowships.

Fellowship support provides a lump sum stipend payment at the start of the quarter and tuition support. Students on a university fellowship also receive a health insurance subsidy.

Research Assistantships

Students on Research Assistantships are employed by the professor who hired them. In the second year RA appointments are arranged. Beyond the second year, students must contact faculty directly to arrange for Research Assistantships. RA support provides salary and tuition allowance for ten units in Autumn, Winter and Spring quarters. In Summer, tuition allowance for an RA is usually for three units. RA positions receive a payroll check twice monthly and also receive a health insurance subsidy. RAs work an average of 20 hours per week during the quarter in which they are employed.

Teaching Assistantships

TA support provides salary and tuition allowance for ten units in Autumn, Winter and Spring quarters. In Summer, tuition allowance for a TA covers three units. TAs are hired by the department and receive a payroll check twice a month, in addition to a health insurance subsidy. TAs work an average of 20 hours per week during the quarter in which they are employed.

If you are an international student working as a TA for the first time, you must obtain language clearance from the Linguistics Department by taking the oral English proficiency test given by the English for Foreign Student (EFS) staff prior to starting the TA position.

Conference Travel and Research Funds

Limited funding is available for conference travel.  All travel must be directly related to the doctoral degree and will be reimbursed only after travel has been fully completed. Student must present at the conference or serve as an organizer in order to be reimbursed.  The current reimbursement amount for travel is limited to a maximum of $2,000 during the student's Ph.D. career.

Limited department funding is available for modest research grants to support student-run experiments or other research projects, with the idea that these can complement other sources of student research funding such as the Shultz funds made available by SIEPR, competitive grants from H&S, and external sources.  Students can request department research funds to purchase data, fund an experiment, etc.  Each student is eligible to request up to $5,000 during their PhD career to use toward support of their research.  Students need to submit a research funding application which outlines an explanation of the project, a detailed budget and an endorsement from a faculty sponsor.  Applications for research funding are submitted to the Student Services Manager and approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. research_funding_app.pdf

Additional Sources of Support

Students are encouraged to seek out other sources of support to assist them during the research stage of their program.  A short list of available resources is outlined below.