Funding
The Department provides significant financial support for all students in the Ph.D. program and some financial support to some students in the M.A. program.
Funding for Ph.D. Students
Typically, Ph.D. students serve as Teaching Assistants (TAs) for their first three years in the program. For the 2023-24 academic year, TAs earned an annual stipend of $25,135. Starting in their fourth year, Ph.D. students typically start teaching their own courses with full responsibility, becoming Graduate Part-Time Instructors (GPTIs) and earning (in 2023-24) $29,051. All students on a TA or GPTI appointment also receive full tuition waivers and coverage of about 90% of the cost of health insurance. The Department has no control over any of these figures; they are set centrally by the University.
Support is guaranteed for five years, conditional upon satisfactory progress in the program. Some Philosophy Ph.D. students take longer than that to finish a Ph.D program, however; indeed our median time to graduation is about six years. Although funding into the sixth year is not officially guaranteed, we have almost always been able to provide such funding. We have even usually been able to offer funding into the 7th year; our current policy for 7th-year funding can be found here.
TAs typically lead recitation sections, hold office hours, grade papers, exams, and quizzes, and assist the professor in the administration of the course (some TA-ships don't involve recitation sections).
GPTIs teach their own introductory-level philosophy courses, in which they are fully responsible for all teaching and grading for the course. Teaching one's own course is time-consuming, but also rewarding, and is important preparation for a career of teaching. As indicated above, GPTIs earn more than TAs; moreover, when students Advance to Candidacy (typically in their fourth year), their fees decrease as well.
PhD students receive a one-semester Research-Assistantship (RA-ship), typically taken in the 4th or 5th year, which frees students up from teaching in order to focus on the dissertation. The stipend for the RA-ship is the same as for a TA-ship. In addition, the Department awards a small number of Departmental Dissertation Fellowships (DDFs) each year, which pay the same stipend as a GPTI-ship and come with no teaching duties. The Grad Resources page contains a document that explains the selection criteria for DDFs.
The Department offers Summer RA-ships to a limited number of students each year. Students are invited to apply in the fall semester for the following summer; should combine this RA-ship with work-study funding; and, if awarded a Summer RA-ship, will work with a faculty member who will typically assign them a research project of interest to both parties. Summer RA-ships usually pay about $1,000 without work-study and about $2,500 with work-study. They do not come with any kind of tuition waiver.
Students are encouraged more generally to apply for work-study eligibility. Work-study students are then eligible to be hired into various positions: as paid research assistants for faculty members, as graduate student assistants in the Center for Values and Social Policy, or as graders for courses on an hourly basis.
In addition to internal Department funding for Ph.D. students, there are University-wide (and beyond) sources of funding available to incoming and current Ph.D. students. These fellowships are awarded through an open, campus-wide competition; some provide significantly more money than internal Department funding sources. Our Ph.D. students have often been successful in winning these fellowships. Visit the following pages for more information: Center for Humanities & the Arts (CHA) Dissertation Fellowships; Graduate School Awards and Grants;National Fellowship Opportunities. Also see some of the links provided below.
Funding a humanities Ph.D. with student loans should be approached with serious caution, but the Office of Financial Aid has information about this.
Finally, funds are available both within the Department and from the University for travel to present papers at conferences. See the "Graduate student travel reimbursement policy" document on the Grad Resources page.
Funding for M.A. students
There is no guaranteed funding for M.A. students. Occasionally, some of our M.A. students receive limited support in the form of TA-ships awarded on a semester-by-semester basis, but as a general matter, M.A. students cannot count on departmental funding and must look into other sources of financial support.
CHA/College of Arts & Sciences Fellowship
The objective of these fellowships is to recruit outstanding new students for graduate study in the humanities and the arts within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The fellowship will cover tuition, fees, and insurance plus a stipend equivalent to a 50% (.4 FTE) Graduate Part-Time Instructor appointment for the first year of graduate study. In addition, students receiving these fellowships will be named Center for Humanities and the Arts Graduate Scholars and Artists. The Graduate Scholars and Artists Program will include a convocation dinner hosted by CHA and invitations to all CHA events. Students receiving a fellowship will normally receive departmental support after the fellowship period, and those who pursue a doctoral degree at CU will be encouraged to compete for a Thomas Edwin Devaney Dissertation Fellowship to provide support during their final year. Recent recipients: Abigail Gosselin (2003-4), Mary Krizan (2003-4), Amandine Catala (2006-7)
Chancellor's Graduate Fellowship Program
This is perhaps the university's most prestigious award for incoming graduate students, intended to attract outstanding graduate students to the university. Selected students receive a stipend of $20,000 for two academic years and a full waiver of all tuition and fees. Students admitted to a PhD program who are nominated by their department compete on a campus-wide basis for this award. The Philosophy Department has had two of its nominees win this award in the recent past, though they chose to go to other graduate programs.
Thomas Edwin Devaney Fellowship
The objective of these fellowships is to recruit outstanding new students for doctoral graduate study in the humanities and the arts within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder.The fellowship will cover tuition, fees, and insurance plus a stipend equivalent to a 50% (.4 FTE) Graduate Part-Time Instructor appointment for the first and second years of graduate study. In addition, new students receiving these fellowships will be named Center for Humanities and the Arts Graduate Scholars and Artists. The Graduate Scholars and Artists Program will include a convocation dinner hosted by CHA and invitations to all CHA events. Students receiving a fellowship will normally receive departmental support after the fellowship period, and those who pursue a doctoral degree at CU will be encouraged to compete for a Thomas Edwin Devaney Dissertation Fellowship to provide support during their final year. Recent recipients: Kendy Hess (2003-4, 2004-5), Jay Lynch (2004-5, 2005-6), Scott Wisor (2005-6, 2006-7).
Graduate School Diversity Fellowship
These are awarded to underrepresented first-year graduate students who demonstrate high academic promise. Their purpose is to increase the diversity of the graduate student body at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Only students with U.S. citizenship and permanent residents are eligible. The amount of each award is $2,500. Nominations are submitted by the departments in February.
There are four University of Colorado fellowships available to currently enrolled PhD students across campus. In most cases, the department is asked to nominate students for a campus-wide competition; our students regularly win these fellowships, which enable them to work on their dissertations without having teaching duties.
George F. Reynolds
The George F. Reynolds fellowships are among the most prized awards offered by the Graduate School. George F. Reynolds, a teacher, scholar, humanist and philanthropist, who died in 1964, bequeathed funds for these yearly, self-perpetuating fellowships for outstanding graduate students in the humanities.The fellowship award is equal to the stipend for a Graduate Part Time Instructor and a tuition waiver for five hours. The fellowship period is one academic year.
According to the rules of the fellowship, each department in the humanities may nominate one student for this award. All eligible students in our department will automatically be considered as possible nominees.The department's nominee will be contacted by the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in early March.
Thomas Edwin Devaney Dissertation Fellowship
The objective of these fellowships is to assist students working in the humanities and the arts within the College of Arts and Sciences in the continuance and completion of their doctoral program. Devaney Dissertation Fellowships are equivalent to the stipend for a Graduate Part-time Instructor (50% time, .4FTE) and a tuition waiver for five hours. In addition, these students are named as Graduate Student Fellows in the Center for Humanities and the Arts; as such, they would be invited to be full participants in the work of CHA. Departments will nominate 1-2 students to compete for this award. Selection generally takes place in April. Past recipients include Matt Tedesco (2003-4), Abby Goselin (2005-6), Peter Higgins (2007-8), Jason Wyckoff (2008-9), Kelly Weirich (2014-15).
Emerson/Lowe Dissertation Fellowship
The College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, administers the Emerson and Lowe Dissertation Fellowships in the Humanities. The purpose of the fellowship program is to provide outstanding PhD candidates in the Humanities with financial support to assist in the process of completing their doctoral dissertations. Emerson and Lowe fellowships will provide full support for a full academic year. This award is the equivalent of a stipend, fees, insurance, and tuition remission (for either resident or non-resident) for the academic year. The number of awards will thus depend upon the residency status of the awardees. Recent recipients include Dan Demetriou (2007-8), Mary Krizan (2008-9).
Brown/Ricketts/Udick Graduate Fellowship
Twenty years ago, AAUW branch member Lydia Brown left a bequest of $7,000 to the branch to help "worthy graduate women at CU." Since then, AAUW members Elizabeth Ricketts and Berny Udick have added gifts to the grant fund. Each year, the Boulder Branch provides several monetary awards from the interest from this endowment to University of Colorado graduate women. The Udick provides only partial support for one semester only; hence, recipients of this award continue to teach for that semester.
Criteria: Woman resident of Colorado and studying at the University of Colorado at the Master's or Doctoral level. Applications are accepted in the early spring for those who will be completing their graduate work NOT before May of 2009.
Provost's Fellowships in the Library
Each year five outstanding CU-Boulder graduate students are awarded with a fellowship of $2500 to support their work with a faculty mentor in the libraries and to provide them with the opportunity to expand their understanding and appreciation of library faculty careers in postsecondary institutions.
Provost's Fellowships in Technology
Each year five outstanding CU-Boulder graduate students receive a fellowship of $2500 to support the creation of a digital media-based project. The project must be deployable in the classroom and must advance the teaching of some aspect of the Fellows’ discipline in a unique and useful way. The Provost’s Fellow for Technology collaborates with an off-campus faculty mentor throughout all stages of the project.
This is a very partial list of external fellowships, awarded by national organizations to support outstanding PhD students nationwide. More fellowships can be found at the Center for Humanities and the Arts' funding page, which also provides advice about how to apply for external funding.
Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship
The Fellowship makes approximately 60 Predoctoral Awards at $20,000 per year for up to three years.
Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program
This program provides fellowships to students of superior academic ability – selected on the basis of demonstrated achievement, financial need, and exceptional promise – to undertake study at the doctoral and Master of Fine Arts level in selected fields of arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS
The ACLS sponsors a fellowship program, the Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Early Career Fellowships, which will provide support for young scholars to complete dissertations and, later, to advance their research after being awarded the Ph.D. Stipend for 2015-16: $30,000, plus funds for research costs of up to $3,000 and for university fees of up to $5,000.
Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies (Freie Universtät, Berlin)
Awards fellowships for doctoral dissertation research as well as for postdocs.
Carl Kisslinger Graduate Student Awards
The funds are to be awarded to individual graduate students by the administration of the graduate programs on each designated campus, to support their research or other scholarly and creative work.
Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst/German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
The German government sponsors a variety of fellowships ranging from support for intensive summer language study in Germany to full one-year funding for dissertation work at a German university. This is an invaluable resource for anyone intending to study the history of philosophy, especially for German authors like Kant, Hegel, etc.
Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.
PEO Scholar Awards (PSA)
The P.E.O. Scholar Awards program, established in 1991, provides educational awards for women who are pursuing a doctoral level degree at an accredited college or university.