The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures is committed to funding each admitted student for the five years expected to complete the Ph.D. The Department pools funding from a variety of sources, and designs funding packages with the following goals in mind:

• to give each student an opportunity to adjust to the demands of graduate school; and
  
• to give each student the chance to develop the teaching experience necessary for success in the academic job market.

Funding sources include: departmental grants, Rackham School of Graduate Studies fellowships, graduate student instructorships (teaching assistantships), and fellowship programs administered by other University of Michigan units.

In addition to these possibilities, the Rackham website offers a "Fellowship Finder" program and links to many other fellowship search engines, off the "Financial Assistance" or "Fellowships" pages. Consider external possibilities as well as the popular local ones here. For information on later stage grants and fellowships, please click here.

The Department also offers a variety of auxiliary funding sources for enrolled graduate students including: travel grants, summer research grants, spring/summer teaching positions, and exchange lectureships.

	Terrific search functions for locating fellowships include Rackham's Fellowship Finder and Rackham Administered Fellowships. Below are some sample keywords you may want to use when searching the Fellowship Finder:
	dissertation     International Institute     Spanish French Italian summer fulbright languages travel humanities literature women international minority

A few of the fellowships RLL graduate students have been awarded in the past include: Ford Predoctoral Fellowships for Minorities, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship,and Mellon Fellowship.

Though funding packages vary from student to student, a typical 2009-2010 Departmental package for a student admitted to the French, Italian, or Spanish Ph.D. program consisted of:

1st year	Department fellowship consisting of a $16,000 annual stipend, a full tuition award and health care coverage.
2nd - 4th years	Graduate Student Instructorship in which the student teaches one class per term for an annual stipend of $17,270, a full tuition award and health care coverage.
5th year	Two terms of teaching for a stipend of $8,635.75 per term and a full tuition award (same as 2nd-4th years); or one term of teaching and a possible one-term competitive fellowship award, the amount of which varies depending on the source of funding but typically includes a stipend of at least $8,000, a full tuition award and health care coverage.
Summers	Support for 2 summers of the student's choice, which includes a $4,000 stipend and health care coverage. This stipend does not require residency in Ann Arbor, so may be used for research or study travel.

While no additional application materials are required to be considered for University of Michigan-related funding sources, the Department does encourage students to apply for funding from independent sources. Should you be awarded funding from one of these private sources, the Department will work with you to supply support for the years not covered by the tenure of the award received.

Questions? Please contact the Graduate Assistant.

>> back to top