Funding Your Graduate Education
Teaching and research assistantships, traineeships and fellowships provide the most common forms of support for graduate students.
Assistantships at .50 FTE or more include a stipend, health insurance, and full tuition. Assistantships at less than .50 FTE include a stipend, health insurance, out-of-state tuition, and 50% of in-state tuition.
Academic departments award assistantships and other field-specific fellowships and traineeships. Please visit the website of the department you are interested in for more information.
Additional funding opportunities are outlined below.
Native American Student Affiars (NASA) Scholarships
The Native American Student Affairs Office (NASA) coordinates Native American Scholarships for UA Native undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. The Scholarships are made available on an annual basis and are drawn from various sources such as endowments, donors, and charitable trust funds. A majority of the Scholarships are need-based. Individual scholarship award amounts vary. Applicants must verify enrollment with a federal or state recognized tribe.
UA/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation American Indian Graduate Partnership Fellowships
The University of Arizona Graduate College is pleased to invite prospective Native American graduate students to apply for admission and financial support to earn a master's and/or doctoral degree in one of 59 graduate programs offered by the University of Arizona in science, engineering, mathematics and agricultural fields. Sloan Scholars receive $32,000 for the Master's program ($16,000 /year), $38,500 for the Ph.D. program (total amount for degree program), tuition scholarships (Fall and Spring only), UA individual student health insurance (Fall, Spring and Summer), special faculty mentoring, and academic and cultural support.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowships for Underrepresented Students
The goal of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation program at the University of Arizona is to increase the number of underrepresented (African Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans) students receiving Ph.D.s in Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences, and Optical Sciences. Sloan Scholars may receive up to $38,500 during their graduate program.
Initiatives for Maximizing Student Diversity for Ph.D.s (IMSD)
The University of Arizona Graduate College offers the prestigious National Institute of Health Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity Graduate Study Awards to outstanding underrepresented students who are admitted to one of sixteen Ph.D. biomedical programs at the University of Arizona. IMSD Scholars receive a first year stipend of $24,000 plus individual health insurance, tuition waiver, up to $1000 in travel funds to attend a national conference, and a graduate school survival colloquium. Admitting departments offer full funding beyond the first year.
The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) invites you to share in a unique opportunity to pursue a new kind of information profession. Knowledge River, a Tucson-based educational experience, focuses on library and information issues from the needs and perspectives of Hispanics and Native Americans. Knowledge River Scholars receive a stipend of at least $10,000, and tuition scholarships.
On behalf of the student, an Academic Department may apply to the Graduate College for the following funding.
The Arizona Scholars Program
The Arizona Scholars Program promotes and encourages underrepresented students to enroll and complete a graduate degree at the UA. In the interest of helping departments recruit, matriculate, and retain underrepresented graduate students, the Graduate College offers financial assistance to Hispanic, African American, Native American (including Native Pacific Islanders) and other underrepresented students (e.g. males in Nursing, women in Engineering, Asian Americans in the Humanities and Social Sciences) being recruited for UA graduate programs.
The objective of the Diversity Fellowship is to increase the number, quality and diversity of Ph.D. or Ph.D. bound students admitted to graduate school. Every graduate program offering a Ph.D. under the aegis of the Graduate College is eligible to apply on a student’s behalf for the $10,000 fellowship.