Financial Aid

The Financial Aid Office awards needs-based financial aid to graduate students. To apply, students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) which will be made available in December for the following year. Eligible students must be in good standing, enrolled in five credits or more, and making satisfactory academic progress. For more information, please visit the Financial Aid Office website: http://financialaid.ucsc.edu/index.html

Campus Fellowships

A variety of university fellowships may be awarded at the time of admission. These include fee and tuition fellowships and some outright grants of fellowship funding. The value of these fellowships varies according to student need and available funding.

Teaching Assistantships

As part of UCSC's 5 year funding packages (further detailed in offers of admission), the department makes Teaching Assistantships available to graduate students. Teaching Assistants (TA's), at 50% time, receive a stipend of between $9708 and $10,300/quarter (for 2023-24) depending on experience level. (To find prevailing salaries, please refer to the current Academic Personnel Office scales.) In addition, the registration fees, educational fees, and the entire cost of health insurance are paid by the university in the quarter a student TAs.

Extramural Fellowships

Graduate students in the department have an extraordinarily successful record of gaining National Science Foundation dissertation fellowships. Faculty will advise in the preparation of these applications which can be accessed directly from the NSF.

A wide range of information on extramural funding opportunities, both governmental and private, is available through Pivot, a subscriber-based service available to UCSC graduate students.

Information on these and other sources of extramural funding is posted on the bulletin board outside the department office and forwarded to anthropology graduate students via email.

Other Fee Reductions

Once a student has advanced to candidacy they may choose to apply for Part-time status which reduces their fees by about half. When they go to the field to do research that takes them out of "designated local campus region" they may apply for In-Absentia status. In-absentia students pay 15% of the Registration Fee and Educational Fee. Another option is to apply for Leave of Absence (LOA) and pay no fees for a maximum of 3 quarters in a row. Extending a LOA beyond this period requires a strong rationale and permission from the dean. Student should be advised that being on LOA may make certain loans come due as the student is not enrolled; further students do not have access to university health insurance (SHIP), and have reduced access to other campus resources, while on LOA.

Research Grants

In most years, the Anthropology department may make modest funding available for its graduate students in support of living expenses, fees and/or research related expenses for ethnographic field research, language learning, or other activity which substantially contributes to completion of the ethnographic writing requirement, language requirement, or otherwise to preparation for the Qualifying Examinations or dissertation research. Funding typically projects carried out during the summer.

International Students

International students are generally eligible for Teaching Assistantships after proving English language competency.  

International students should consider applying for extramural support as they apply for admission. Some countries offer fellowship opportunities to students studying abroad.  This is especially important for first-year funding for non-resident tuition.  Non-resident tuition for international students can be waived in years 2 and 3.  After advancing to candidacy, typically in year 3, international students are eligible for a 3-year non-resident tuition waiver.  Thus, international students may have 5 years of non-resident tuition waivers.  A limited number of first-year non-resident tuition fellowships are available.  All international applicants are considered for these fellowships at the time of application.

Wadsworth International Fellowship

The Wenner-Gren Foundation has a fellowship designed to support international students from selected countries. http://www.wennergren.org/programs/wadsworth-international-fellowships

Fulbright Program for International Students

Fulbright also has a program for international students.

http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/