Financial Support

Our School ensures that all students have some means of financial support during the 9-month school year for the first four years in the program and is frequently able to continue support beyond this point. In each of the first four years, the PhD program director assists students in obtaining funding from the School, other University of Washington sources, or external federal and private granting agencies. The guaranteed four years of support is in the form of grants, fellowships, or research and/or teaching assistantships. Some entering students have obtained funding from external sources, and these are considered to fulfill the obligation. These appointments typically require a 20-hour-per-week commitment and include a tuition waiver (state residents or non-residents) and health benefits for the Autumn, Winter and Spring Quarters of each year (9 months). Because the PhD program is a full-time program for the first four years, students are not generally permitted to accept university employment or other funding support that puts their FTE at greater than 50 percent during the 9-month academic year.

Each year, awards of stipends, fellowships, and research and teaching assistantships are made on the basis of resources available, match with areas of student interest, skills. An award of a particular stipend or assistantship in one academic year does not carry a commitment for that same award in another year because both the grant situation and the applicant pool will change. Advanced teaching and research positions are available on a competitive basis. Students are encouraged to begin their efforts to secure dissertation research support early and to stay in communication with the PhD program director and the associate deans, who oversee assistantship assignments in consultation with the School administration.

Students with graduate student service appointments (TA, RA, Staff Assistant, Trainee and Fellow), which provide salary, tuition waivers and health benefits, must be registered for at least 10 credits each quarter during the academic year; these assistantships carry a work requirement of 20 hours a week. Appointments are contingent upon satisfactory academic progress and satisfactory performance of duties contracted for each appointment. Students on probation are not eligible for new GSSA appointments. Most GSSA appointments are represented by UAW Local 4121, which can be contaced by email at uaw4121@uaw4121.org.