Fellowships are for students who are currently enrolled or have been enrolled previously in a graduate program at UT Austin. Selection of continuing fellowship recipients is quite unlike selection of recruitment candidates. Emphasis is placed on performance since the student entered the Graduate School, not on GRE scores or undergraduate GPA. The Graduate Coordinator will call for applications for Fellowships in December for the coming academic year.
University Continuing Fellowships
These fellowships are for students who are currently enrolled or have been enrolled previously in a graduate program at UT Austin.
Selection of continuing fellowship recipients is quite unlike selection of recruitment candidates. Emphasis is placed on performance since the student entered the Graduate School, not on GRE scores or undergraduate GPA. There are fixed deadlines and reviews by faculty committees. When nominating a student for such an award, the Graduate Advisor will write a strong covering statement for each student, pointing out the superior work, publications, research projects, etc., in which the student has been involved. Faculty review committees look for departmental support in these letters in order to compare students in the competition. The continuing award provides for nine months of support, as well as an insurance stipend. Continuing Fellowship students are permitted an additional 10 hour appointment as a TA or AI. The Checklist Form to accompany each University Continuing Fellowship must accompany continuing nominations.
The Graduate Coordinator will call for applications for Fellowships in December for the coming academic year.
Jesse H. Jones Fellowships
The College of Communication annually awards one Fellowship per department to graduate students who possess exceptional ability in advertising, journalism, radio-television-film, or communication studies. The fellowships are awarded each Spring for the following academic year. Dates of each competition are posted.
Graduate School Professional Development (Travel) Awards
These awards are used to enable advanced doctoral students to attend professional meetings. The purpose is to get acquainted with students and faculty from other institutions, learn the mechanisms of the professional association, and arrange job interviews. Priority is given to students who are in their last year of doctoral study and have had a paper accepted for presentation at a major professional meeting.
Other Fellowships and Further Sources of Financial Aid
In addition to being informed about the opportunities described above, students are encouraged to consult the Fellowship Coordinator in the Office of Graduate Studies about fellowships administered through the Graduate School. Graduate Fellowship Programs, a brochure available from the Fellowship Coordinator, provides information about a wide variety of both Graduate School-administered and department-based awards.
Students seeking financial aid other than fellowships may obtain a financial aid information bulletin from the Office of Student Financial Services.
The General Libraries offers two sessions each semester on finding grants information on the Internet. A printed handout, "Grants Resources on the Internet," which gives general background, interdisciplinary grant sources, humanities and social science grants sources, and science, technology, and medical grants sources, is available at the General Libraries reference room.
For the Ph.D. degree, assistance may be given for a maximum of four academic years (or 8 semesters). For the combined M.A. and Ph.D., assistance may be given for a maximum of five academic years (or 10 semesters).
Assistant Instructors (AI) are awarded to persons who have a Master's degree and teach classes unassisted. Assistant instructorships currently pay $15,250 for half-time employment for the academic year (September through May). Half-time graduate student employees receive the same health insurance as faculty and staff for the academic year and summer at no cost to the student. Spouses and families can be covered at an additional cost and is deducted from the student's salary. Students may add visual and dental insurance at an additional cost. Normally, assistant instructors are asked to teach two introductory level undergraduate courses each semester, in areas such as professional communication skills, Speechmaking and Society, team based communication, organizational communication, and interviewing. Usually, the department has 25 AIs performing these duties.
Note: The salaries and fellowship amounts cited in this section are for Fall 2008, and are subject to change. We include this information to give you a rough estimate of potential income.