Funding Available to Graduate Students
The department seeks to fully fund all of its students throughout the length of their residency. This funding typically comes in the form of Graduate Assistantships, where students assist the university by helping with ongoing teaching and/or research initiatives. However, there are various other means by which the department supports its students.
Graduate School Fellowships (GSF)
The U. of M. Graduate School supports the College of Liberal Arts (the college which houses the Department of Sociology) with a number of outstanding first-year fellowship packages. The purpose of the GSF program is to assist directly in the recruitment of outstanding students by providing the incentive of an academic-year merit fellowship. The fellowship provides students with free tuition, pays up to 95% of the student’s health insurance costs, and includes a healthy stipend (currently $21,000 per academic year). Top applicants will be noted by the faculty on the Graduate Admissions Committee and may be nominated for the fellowship by the Director of Graduate Studies. Approximately 200 Graduate School Fellowships are available University-wide annually.
In past years, students applying to the Department of Sociology have received a number of these prestigious Graduate School Fellowships, ensuring a comfortable first year of studies. Students being offered a GSF can typically expect their first-year fellowship to be followed by a multi-year offer of departmental funding often guaranteed in the form of a teaching assistantship, a research assistantship, or instructor positions.
Graduate School Diversity of Views and Experiences Fellowships (DOVE)
The purpose of the DOVE fellowshipis to assist in the recruitment of outstanding students who are persons of color, those with disabilities, and those otherwise under-represented in the field of sociology—-including those who are the first in their families to graduate from college and pursue a graduate degree. The fellowship provides students with free tuition, pays up to 95% of the student’s health insurance costs, and includes a healthy stipend (currently $21,500 per academic year). DOVE Fellows also have the opportunity to come to campus during the summer before the start of their first year and participate in The Community of Scholars Program. By submitting the optional diversity statement with the The Graduate School's ApplyYourself application, applicants self-identify themselves as being from an nderrepresented group and position themselves to be recommended by the Sociology admissions Committee and nominated by the Director of Graduate Studies to a University-wide competition. If you do not self-identify as being a person from an underrepresented group, you will not be nominated for the award. If you do not self-identify as being a person from an underrepresented group, you will not be nominated for the award.
In past years, students applying to the Department of Sociology have received a number of these prestigious DOVE Fellowships, ensuring a comfortable first year of studies. Students being offered a DOVE Fellowship can typically expect their first-year fellowship to be followed by a multi-year offer of departmental funding often guaranteed in the form of a teaching assistantship, a research assistantship, or instructor positions.
Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change Fellowships
The Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC) offers six types of financial support for graduate students at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Please visit the program’s website to learn more about the fellowships and to find downloadable application forms. As with most other fellowships that Sociology students receive, the department increases the ICGC funding packages by offering multiple years of departmental support most often guaranteed in the form of a teaching assistantship, a research assistantship, or instructor positions. The department has had over 20 MacArthur Scholars (one of the more prestigious ICGC awards).
Beverly and Richard Fink Fellowships
Fink fellowships are awarded to students pursuing the PhD in Sociology who demonstrate academic promise and financial need. The fellowship is in the form of a five-year package and provides funding (currently $25,000) in students' first and fifth years. During the second through fourth years the department of sociology supports its Fink Fellows with teaching assistantships that provide similar support for tuition, a stipend, and benefits. To be considered for a Fink fellowship, please indicate to the admissions committee in your personal statement or your diversity statement that you demonstrate academic promise and financial need.
Ron Anderson Technology and Social Cohesion Fellowship Award
The Ron Anderson Technology and Social Cohesion Fellowship is designed to support sociology graduate students as they pursue research interests related to information technology. The award recipient can be either a single graduate student or a group of sociology graduate students. The fellowship award can be used either to support students already enrolled in the program or to recruit a new student to the Department of Sociology graduate program. The award recipient is given $2500 and the title of "Anderson Fellow." To receive more information and/or an application form for this fellowship, please contact the Graduate Program Associate, Robert Fox.
The MITER Fellowship
The Minnesota Interdisciplinary Training in Education Research (MITER) Fellowship is designed to assist sociology PhD students whose interests lie in education and whose research agendas focus on theoretical and applied questions in U.S. education. MITER fellows will be required to minor in Education Sciences, and will be granted a three-year, .75-time Research Assistantship. Interested incoming, first-, second-, and third-year students should apply directly to the MITER Program but may ask the sociology department to send to the MITER program copies of their application materials so students do not have to send duplicate materials to the University. Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to apply. Visit the College of Education and Human Ecology website for more information.
Sociology Research Assistantships
Research Assistants (RAs) are chosen directly by the faculty member who is the principal investigator of a particular research project being conducted in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. RAs typically work halftime (i.e. 20 hours per week), make approximately $13,000 per academic year, and receive a tuition waiver and a health insurance package that includes a waiver of up to 95% of their health care costs plus subsidized dependent and dental coverage. Research assistantships are sometimes offered to incoming students with prior research experience, but are generally filled by more advanced graduate students.
Sociology Teaching Assistantships
The department allocates halftime (i.e. 20 hours per week) Teaching Assistantships to all incoming graduate students who are not otherwise supported by fellowships. Teaching Assistants (TAs) make approximately $13,000 per academic year, and receive a tuition waiver and a health insurance package that includes a waiver of up to 95% of their health care costs plus subsidized dependent and dental coverage.
Professional Development Funds
Professional Development funds are available each semester to cover the expenses of presenting papers while attending international, national, or regional sociology meetings. Generally, this has been a $300-$500 per semester, non-service award to help with transportation, lodging and registration fees. During the 2005-06 academic year, close to 30 current graduate students were awarded more than $15,000 to attend upwards of 15 different conferences including meetings hosted by the ASA, Society for the Study of Social Problems, Law and Society Association, and American Society of Criminology.