Financial Support

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Financial Information

Multi-Year Fellowships: 
Most multi-year fellowships are awarded at the time of acceptance to Berkeley. There are, however, additional fellowships for students further in their graduate study, and for graduate students whose backgrounds and educational interests enhance the level of diversity within the Graduate community. See the Graduate Student Services Advisor or Graduate Fellowships Office for more information. 

Departmental Assistance:
The department works with all its students to obtain continuous support through a combination of resources.   

  • Students not awarded University fellowships or extramural support will usually be required to serve as a GSI one semester of each year to be eligible for support in the other semester of each year. 
  • Students who have advanced to candidacy are required to apply to outside sources of funding and must provide a copy of all applications made when applying for departmental support of any kind.
  • Generally, no department funding will be awarded after the seventh year, and seventh year-funding will usually consist of teaching appointments only.
  • Exceptions to these policies will be made on a case-by-case basis by the Fellowships Chair in concert with the student’s advisor.

Foreign Nationals:

Foreign students of ineligible immigration statuses can never be exempted from non-resident tuition. However, the tuition of nonresident graduate students who have been advanced to candidacy for the doctorate is reduced to zero for a maximum calendar period of three years calculated from the semester subsequent to the students’ advancement, whether registered or not.

For more information on fellowships, contact Clayton Hall at clayh@berkeley.edu or visit the Graduate Division Fellowship website. In recent years students have been successful in obtaining such grants as the Javits, Kress, Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, American Association of University Women, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Getty Predoctoral, National Gallery/CASVA, Fulbright and many others.

Graduate Student Instructors (GSI)

Teaching is considered an important part of graduate training,  and each student in the program will normally serve several times as an instructor.

  • Applications for GSI appointments are distributed each spring, usually in March or April.  
  • Appointments are announced before the end of the spring semester.
  • First-year graduate students do not normally serve as GSIs.

First Time GSI  

  • All first-time GSIs are required to attend an orientation workshop sponsored by the University, as well as the pedagogy course offered in the department each year.
  • Mandatory training and pedagogy sessions are offered at the start of each semester for all GSIs.
  • First-time international GSIs must pass an exam to demonstrate English language proficiency.

Resources