The Ph. D. program is designed to be completed in six or seven years, four or five of which are normally spent in residence. Our funding package supports students throughout the process.
Basic funding package
All students receive five years of full funding (tuition fellowship, medical insurance, an academic-year stipend based on a Graduate Student Instructorship (GSI) at the pay level set in the GEO/UM contract, and a summer stipend at the level of support set by the Rackham Graduate School), as well as additional years, as needed, of tuition only fellowship (TOF) with health insurance. This support is guaranteed so long as students continue to make “satisfactory progress” in the degree. Of the five fully funded years, students are granted up to four non-work semesters: two in the first year, and another typically augmented to extend from January through August for non-residential research in the fourth year. One additional non-work semester is usually available in the student's final year in the program in year 5 or beyond. Students generally serve as Graduate Student Instructors (GSI) for at least two years and may compete for a department-funded internship at a museum or other institution for one of the other semesters when such positions are available. Every student in years 1-5 receives supplemental funding as a grant each summer and is eligible to apply for additional summer funding to be used for travel, language study, and research. Students beyond year 5 usually receive modest support for summer funding and are eligible to apply for research support, internal fellowships, GSI positions, or internship funding when positions are available. We help our students apply for both internal and external grants to augment summer research and enable an extra year of dissertation work away from campus.
