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Home > Graduate Studies : Funding

Funding

Financial Support

Every new student admitted to the PhD program receives five years of financial support. For the entering class of 2011, each year of the package included a $13,845 stipend, a full tuition waiver, and 95% of health insurance premium. In addition, each student received four years of summer fellowship with a stipend of $4,200. Under this policy, the gross take-home payment to each student is $17,895 per year. The first year all students were on fellowship, and the following four years will be funded through teaching or research assistantships, possible additional fellowships, and/or the opportunity to teach a class after becoming ABD and completing all coursework. All commitments to financial aid assume normal financial conditions at the university. Some changes in the funding package may occur for the class that enters in Fall 2012.

Fellowships

Several different fellowships are available to new students in political science. In recent years we have offered six or seven prospective students Graduate School Fellowships and DOVE Fellowships. Graduate School Fellowship and DOVE Fellowship winners receive an additional $8500 in their first year, and sometimes in their second year as well. An additional two or three students in comparative politics or international relations have been offered MacArthur Program Fellowships.

David and Janis Larson have created a graduate research fellowship for students studying political economy. N. Marbury Efimenco has created a fellowship for international relations. The Department's two Arleen Carlson chairs each provide two fellowships to our graduate program. Human rights is the focus of one pair (these fellowships can be awarded to students in U.S. politics, comparative politics, international relations, or political theory, who are interested in human rights); U.S. politics is the focus of the other pair. Typically these are one year fellowships. The admissions committee allots these fellowships on the basis of the merit of applicants to the program. There is no separate application process for these fellowships.

Applicants who intend to study Political Theory are advised to consider applying for an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies.

Teaching and Research Assistantships

The majority of Ph.D. students are funded through teaching or research assistantships. At present assistants earn about $14,000 per year, plus an additional $4,050 summer stipend. The students also receive medical insurance benefits and a tuition waiver. Assistants do not teach individual classes; rather they grade and otherwise assist professors in teaching undergraduate classes.

Assuming normal progress in coursework and satisfactory performance of teaching assistant duties, students receive aid for five years. Financial aid also covers the Graduate School residency requirement.

After passing preliminary written and oral examinations, usually in the spring of the third year, students are eligible for a wider set of opportunities. Each year a few students are awarded dissertation fellowships in a college-wide competition. Some students continue to receive assistantships. Many students secure an instructorship and teach a course of their own for the department during this period. The department's general policy is to offer all graduate students the opportunity to teach at least one course of their own before graduation.

Contact Info

Graduate Studies Assistant
Jessie Eastman
1408 SocSci
612-624-1187
eastm004@umn.edu

Director of Graduate Studies

Dara Strolovitch
1408 SocSci
612-624-1028
dzs@umn.edu