Fellowship Office
209 Coble Hall, gradfellowships@uiuc.edu, (217) 333-0036
Financial Aid for Graduate Students
Financial aid for graduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is available in the form of:
- Teaching, research, graduate, and pre-professional graduate assistantships (including those funded by Federal Work Study)
- Fellowships (including traineeships)
- Grants
- Loans
How to Apply
Submitting the APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION TO THE GRADUATE COLLEGE, places you in the candidate pool for consideration for all fellowships administered by the Graduate College along with fellowships and assistantships offered within the department to which you are applying. The application includes basic information about you as a candidate, your personal statement, three letters of reference, and transcripts. Some programs may request additional information as part of the application.
To Be Considered for Fellowships
You must apply for admission as early as possible, preferably during the fall semester. Departments have different application deadlines, and some occur as early as the end of December. You should check with your prospective program for its deadline. Be sure that your application is complete and all reference letters arrive on time.
Although it is advisable to apply for financial aid as early as possible, it is also important that the most recent grades be available to the selection committees. (Your undergraduate grade point average is computed on the last two years of undergraduate work.) If you request it, your institution's transcript office will usually delay mailing your transcript until after fall grades have been posted.
Fellowships are awarded only to full-time degree-seeking students. All awards are contingent upon sufficient funding being available. For more information on campus fellowship programs, please consult the Graduate College comprehensive, searchable listing of fellowship opportunities at www.grad.uiuc.edu/fellowship/. For 2006-2007, fellowships of $3,000 or more per semester provide a full waiver of tuition, service fee, health service fee, the Library/Technology fee, and AFMFA fee. In addition, Fellows receive dental and vision insurance, and partial payment of the graduate student health insurance fee.
Assistantships
Teaching, research, graduate, and pre-professional graduate assistants receive stipends for services rendered to the University. Assistantship appointments between 25% and 67%, inclusive, for three-quarters of the term provide waivers of either the full tuition or the base-rate tuition, depending on the graduate program of enrollment. Such appointments also carry a full waiver of the service fee, health service fee, the Library/Technology fee, and AFMFA fee. In addition, assistants with waivers receive dental and vision insurance at no charge and partial payment of the graduate student health insurance fee. Assistants who have tuition and fee waivers for the spring semester are automatically granted a waiver of tuition and the service fee for the succeeding summer term if they choose to enroll and do not receive a summer waiver-generating appointment. For a complete listing of all fees assessed, see www.oar.uiuc.edu/current/financial/grad_fees.html. While stipend levels vary greatly from one program to another, the minimum stipend for the 2007-2008 academic year is $13,002 for a half-time (50%), nine-month assistantship. Teaching assistants and graduate assistants are represented by the Graduate Employee Organization.
Federal Work Study Assistantships
Some assistantship funding is available for graduate students who can pass the financial need test for the Federal Work Study program. In order to be considered for an assistantship funded by federal work study, it is required that applicants complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form by mid-March.
Federal Fellowships and Traineeships
The U.S. government uses fellowships and traineeships to attract students toward certain areas in which there are shortages of qualified personnel; thus, most fellowships are academic field-specific. Types of awards available vary from year to year, but typically include: U.S. Public Health Service Traineeships in the biological and certain social sciences; Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships in Asian, African, Latin American, Russian, East European, South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Need Fellowships in several fields. These are awarded to students at the discretion of the academic departments involved. The stipends for federal fellowships vary, but all provide for tuition and fees. Applicants for Federal fellowships must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Fellowship Office Home | Current and Prospective Students
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