The History Department's Financial Aid Committee will meet in February to begin the financial award process. We hope to have notice of awards and denials to students by the end of March.
Merit-based financial awards are competitive and limited. Therefore, we encourage you to get in touch with the University's Financial Aid Office to obtain information on loans, grants, work-study, etc.
The following is a brief description of UCSB's merit-based awards.
- SPECIAL FELLOWSHIPS: Competition is very high for these four and five-year fellowships that combine stipend, tuition, fee support and teaching assistantships. Criteria for awarding this fellowship are: GRE scores (verbal and analytical percentiles should total at least 180%), GPA of at least 3.6 for junior and senior years, letters of reference and quality of writing sample.
- DEPARTMENTAL RECRUITING FELLOWSHIPS: A portion of the Department's fellowship money goes towards recruiting packages for incoming students. This money may be awarded as non-resident tuition fellowships (out-of-state students are expected to establish residency by the end of their first academic year), or as a departmental fellowship which would go towards payment of fees and include a stipend.
- TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS: A limited number of teaching assistantships are available and these are generally given to students who already have the M.A. degree. Such support is not guaranteed for any fixed period, but most students are able to TA for at least two years. Teaching duties generally consist of three sections of one of the lower division survey courses: Western Civilization or American History.
- RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIPS AND READERSHIPS: For this type of departmental support, please contact History Department Financial Assistant Loretta Holt during the first few weeks of your entering quarter. She will keep your name on a list and it will be given to professors as their need for either position arises. A research assistant assists a professor in doing academic research, library work, bibliographic work, etc. A reader assists a professor with large class rosters in grading papers.
If you have any questions regarding the above, please call the Graduate Program Assistants, Darcy Ritzau, M-F, 8-12 noon, (805) 893-3056, or Deborah Johnson, M-F, 1-5 (805) 893-2224.