Financial support is available for graduate students primarily through the university graduate assistantships and fellowships, which are available to foreign nationals as well as to U.S. citizens. To request application materials for these positions, please contact Dr. Suzanne Kocher, Graduate Coordinator.

Grants and loans, primarily for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, are available through the University's Office of Financial Aid. Other forms of financial aid open to all students are available in the form of scholarships, awards and official agreements between countries.

For travel to conferences or to special collections in connection with dissertation research, the Department offers a number of small scholarships.  $400 per semester for these purposes is also available through the University's Graduate Student Organization (GSO).

Graduate assistantships

Graduate assistantships are awarded to selected graduate students. Non U.S. citizens can also apply. Applications and supporting documents for graduate assistantships should be submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School by March 1 for Fall admission and by November 1 for Spring admission. To qualify for an assistantship, a student must be in regular admission status.

The amounts of assistantship stipends are announced annually.  Compensation includes remission of tuition and most fees. Since stipends vary, applicants should contact the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of Modern Languages for current values.

Assistantships are awarded for the academic year. They are contingent upon satisfactory performance in graduate studies and acceptable discharge of assistantship duties; they may be revoked at any time these conditions are not met. A graduate assistant must complete a minimum of nine credit hours applicable to the degree each semester.  The assistantship is renewable for up to 4 semesters for M.A. students and 6 semesters for Ph.D. students.

Graduate assistants might be assigned to be research assistants or teaching assistants. A research assistant is working about 10 hours per week. A teaching assistant  must teach an Elementary French class of 5 hours, plus 3 office hours and 2 hours in the language laboratory (Language Resource Center).  Research assistantships are also sometimes available.  For these positions, students are requested to communicate directly with the Graduate Coordinator.

No graduate assistant may receive payment for a second campus job unless approved by the major department and the Dean of the Graduate School.

Fellowships

The University has dedicated four fellowships to the Francophone Studies program. They are available on a competitive basis. Non U.S. citizens can also apply. Fellowships require no duties the first year, though fellows must maintain full-time status. Since Fellowship stipends vary, applicants should contact the Graduate Coordinator for current values. No fellowship recipient may receive payment for a campus job, nor hold a job off-campus. The deadline to apply for fellowships is February 15 for Fall admission, and November 1 for Spring admission.