MTL Graduate Program > Financial Support

Ph.D. students admitted to the program receive five years of full support. The funding is a combination of University fellowship stipends, teaching assistantships, and research assistanships. Tuition is also covered for five full years, as is health insurance during enrolled quarters. In addition, students are eligible for two summers of funding.

Students are required to demonstrate competence in teaching. To satisfy the requirement, most students will teach two quarters of Freshman English as well as act as teaching assistants in other courses. Substitutions may be made for students whose primary literature/culture is not English. The normal combination of fellowship and teaching assistantship for students is as follows:

First year: A student will be on University fellowship for two quarters and a teaching assistantship for one quarter, normally in the English Department.

Second year: The student will have three quarters of teaching assistantship - one quarter will be as a teaching apprentice, with salary, in the Freshman Writing Program, and two quarters will be teaching Freshman Writing .

Third year: Like the first year, students will be on University fellowship for two quarters, and a teaching assistantship for one quarter in a course that may pertain to their particular interdisciplinary interest or to their literature component.

Fourth year: Students are on three quarters of pre-doctoral research fellowship, which allows them full time for dissertation writing.

Fifth year: Generally funded as a year of University fellowship stipends.

Students may be eligible for additional limited funding for special needs, such as child care and conference travel.

Other Funding Sources:

• The Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships in Humanistic Studies
• Ford Foundation Fellowships et al.
• Social Science Research Council
• Community of Science (includes Humanities) Funding search engine
• Grants in Graduate Studies