Fellowships, Scholarships, Grants, and Prizes
The University's Office of Student Financial Services estimates other expenses (housing, food, other educational and incidental expenses) to exceed $1000 a month. See the Graduate School's site Funding Your Graduate Education.
A. CREEES support
Each year CREEES offers recruitment fellowships to a small number of its incoming graduate students based on their regular admission applications; no separate fellowship application is required. Stipends vary up to $15,000 per year, plus tuition and fees; such fellowships are occasionally combined with a multi-year offer of a Teaching Assistantship.
Criteria for awarding financial aid
Unfortunately center resources for supporting graduate students are limited. Not all deserving students can be supported. Center financial awards are made on the basis of the following three criteria:- Academic merit: attracting good students to the program and retaining them.
- Professional promise: providing our students with practical training for a future career.
- Subordinate to the first two criteria is that of Utility: serving departmental staffing needs in the language teaching program.
- The major fields of study offered by the Center.
- Continuing versus in-coming students.
- Distributing teaching experience among eligible and promising students.
Financial aid administered by CREEES
a. Graduate Assistantships
CREEES has a limited number of part-time staff positions for graduate students as Graduate Assistants (commonly referred to as "RA's") and Teaching Assistants ("TA's").
- Duties and benefits of Graduate Assistants. An RA performs various non-instructional duties assigned by the department. A TA assists a faculty member in the instructional program, but is not permitted to conduct regular classroom instruction. TA's and RA's are appointed as University employees, entitling them to certain benefits, including the right to pay tuition and fees at the in-state rate.
- Qualifications and conditions. An RA or TA must have been admitted to the Graduate School without conditions or deficiencies, must be in good academic standing (GPA > 3.0), and must be making satisfactory progress toward the degree (with no more than one grade of Incomplete from the previous semester or summer term). International students are qualified for 'student contact' only on earning English language certification through the UT Austin International Office; the graduate adviser can provide details. During each semester of the appointment, the RA or TA must be registered for at least nine semester hours of courses.
b. University 'Preemptive' Fellowships
While funded and administered by the Graduate School, the Center nominates candidates for these prestigious fellowships, which impose no duties on the recipient. Students can be offered a one-year (nine-months) preemptive fellowship or a fellowship/assistantship package (for two years, or, in very rare cases, five years). A student ranked in the top ten percent of the national applicant pool in the field is eligible to be nominated. Nominees typically have a combined (Verbal plus Quantitative) GRE score over 1400, along with a strong academic record in other indicators of probable success in graduate studies. Entering students are eligible for "pre-emptive" fellowships; after the first year, students with an outstanding record are eligible for "continuing" fellowships.c. Continuing Fellowships
Each year CREEES offers fellowships to a small number of its currently enrolled graduate students. These awards are made based on the students' records since entering graduate school, research proposals, personal statements, and letters of recommendation. The deadline to apply is generally late January each year.
B. Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships
Each year the Center awards a number of Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships designed to enable graduate students specializing in various disciplines or professional fields to acquire a high level of competence in one or more languages of the former Soviet Union and Central/Eastern Europe and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the region.In making awards, highest priority is assigned to students who:
- combine language and area studies with professional studies, such as business, public affairs, journalism, or law
- study the less commonly taught languages of the area, especially Czech, Polish, Romanian, Romani, Russian, Serbian and Croatian, and Tajik
- intend to become specialists in social science disciplines, especially anthropology, economics, geography, government, and sociology
C. Office of Student Financial Services (OSFS)
Office: Student Services Building 3.200
100 West Dean Keeton Street
Campus mail code: E3700
Mail: P. O. Box 7758
Austin, TX 78713-7758
Telephone: (512) 475-6282
Fax: (512) 475-6296
E-mail: finaid@www.utexas.edu
UT Office of Student Financial Services
Request the Application Guide: Steps to Financing Your Education. You will need to complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). While resources are limited and many applications are received, you may secure assistance in several forms. Students who apply for financial aid using the FAFSA are eligible for all federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs offered by the OSFS, except the Federal Pell Grant. These include:
- Gift aid: state and institutional grant or scholarship funds
- Self-help aid: student loans, both need-based and non-need-based. Most graduate students will be eligible for student loans through the Federal Family Educational Loan Program (FFELP).
In addition, the Office of Student Financial Services is authorized to grant interest-free short-term loans for emergency or tuition assistance purposes. Such loans could be useful if you are expecting money which has not arrived when you need it.
D. Other sources of support
Guaranteed student loans, Basic Education Opportunity Grants, Work/Study, and other financial aid information is available through the UT Office of Student Financial Services. OSFS can also assist you in searching for other private foundations and government agencies which offer a panoply of fellowship, grant, and loan funds to help you finance your graduate education. In addition to their own web page, they recommend The Financial Aid Page, maintained by M. Kantrowitz. The graduate advisor makes such relevant sources known to students in residence, primarily by posting notices on the Graduate Program bulletin board.
