Funding Opportunities

This section describes funding opportunities for current students. Information about the funding package for incoming students is described under graduate admissions.

All graduate students in the department are required to apply for other sources of support for which they are eligible. Graduate students should work closely with their faculty advisor(s) to identify appropriate funding sources, and to prepare strong funding applications.

Rackham Conference Travel Grant

Rackham Graduate Student Research Grants

Rackham Professional Development Grant

LSA Tuition-only Fellowship (Waivers)

Tuition-only fellowships are made available to students who will be away from campus for a term. These cover the cost of tuition and allow the student to maintain continuous enrollment in the program. For example, a student might apply for a tuition-only fellowship if they plan to conduct field-work away from campus.

Students who have advanced to candidacy and have defended their prospectus are eligible to apply. In exceptional cases, the Graduate Committee, in consultation with the student's dissertation committee (if it has been established; if not, the A and B advisors), can waive the prospectus requirement.

Application Procedures

Eligible candidates may apply by submitting a proposal to the Graduate Committee. The proposal should include:

A detailed description of the proposed off-campus research, its duration, and its relevance to the PhD thesis;
Written endorsement from both A and B advisors.

Students should submit the proposal to the Graduate Committee by April 1 for a Fall-term tuition fellowship and November 15 for a Winter-term fellowship.

Other Rackham Funding Sources

Numerous funding opportunities are available across the University. It is the responsibility of students and their advisors to be aware of sources of support. Listed below are sources most commonly sought by Linguistics students. Other possibilities should also be actively pursued. A good source of information is the Rackham funding opportunities page.

Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship

The Predoctoral Fellowship is a highly competitive award that provides stipend, tuition, and GradCare for the 12-month term of the award. The fellowship is intended for outstanding doctoral candidates who will complete the dissertation in the year in which they hold the fellowship and who will complete the Ph.D. within 6 years of beginning their programs.

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee solicits applications, which include a detailed statement of the proposed dissertation project, in the Fall term of each year (via an email message sent out by the Graduate Chair). The Graduate Committee selects the student(s) to be nominated on the basis of several factors, including competitiveness of the academic record and the extent to which the research statement is intellectually engaging and succeeds in addressing a broad audience of scholars who may lack knowledge of that particular area of inquiry.

Barbour Scholarship

The Barbour Scholarship is awarded to exceptional women from Eastern countries. It is an 8-month award that includes stipend, tuition, and GradCare.

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee solicits applications, which include a detailed statement of purpose, from eligible students in the Fall term of each year; the nominee is selected by the Graduate Committee.

See the Barbour Scholarship description for details about eligibility and the selection process.

Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Funds

The Rackham Graduate Student Emergency Fund is intended to help meet the financial needs of Rackham graduate students who encounter an emergency situation or one-time, unusual, or unforeseen expenses during their degree program.

See the program details for more information about eligibility and procedures for application.

Other Funding Sources at the University of Michigan

Center for the Education of Women+: Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellowship

This highly competitive fellowship is for outstanding women graduate students with a strong potential to make exceptional contributions to society.

Applicants must be nominated by their department. The Linguistics Graduate Committee invites applications in the Fall term from appropriate doctoral candidates, although eligible interested students should contact the Graduate Chair at linggradchair@umich.edu.

For more information, see the CEW Scholarships page and scroll down to the "Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellowship"

Center for the Education of Women+: Emergency Funding

CEW+ is able to offer small emergency grants to current U-M Ann Arbor graduate students and undergraduate students. These grants, called Emergency Funds (EF), are for unexpected, unanticipated financial emergencies that threaten to derail degree progression.

To be considered for CEW+ Emergency Funding, the student will need to call 734-764-6360, fill out this form, or email cew.appts@umich.edu to schedule an emergency funding appointment with a CEW+ counselor.

Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships provide tuition and a stipend to students studying designated foreign languages in combination with area studies or international aspects of professional studies. The priority is to encourage the study of less commonly taught modern languages. FLAS Fellowships are administered by the University of Michigan Area Studies Centers and are awarded competitively through annual fellowship competitions.
See the FLAS program description for details about the application process.

Humanities Institute Graduate Student Fellowships

The graduate student fellowship is ten months long (September– June). Graduate student fellows are provided with a shared office and desktop computer at the institute’s home in the Thayer Academic Building. Graduate student fellows receive a stipend and the institute pays each fellow’s candidacy tuition and all required fees for the fall and winter terms.

International Institute Fellowships & Grants

The International Institute offers a wide range of Student Fellowships & Grants, including funding opportunities that are specific to the individual centers for various world regions (Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Asia, etc.).

Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies (LRCCS)

The Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies (LRCCS) awards many fellowships and grants to U-M students with interest in China and Chinese studies.

External Funding Sources

Many external funding sources are available and, beginning in students' first year in the program, students and their advisors should consider external sources of funding for students' graduate education and research. The two external sources most commonly sought by our students are NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and Fulbright Fellowships; the latter is administered at UM through the International Institute. The Rackham Fellowships Office also has information on a wide range of external funding sources.

Other external funding sources:

ACLS dissertation completion fellowship (call opens in the Summer for following year)

NSF Linguistics - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Awards (DDRI)

Permanent International Committee of Linguists - International conference grant

RISE Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center Grants

Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships

The Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships is an office at the University of Michigan that recruits and prepares U-M undergraduates, graduate and professional students and recent alums for major national scholarship and fellowship competitions such as the Rhodes Scholarship for postgraduate study at Oxford.

ONSF was created in 2017 to address the knowledge gap students faced when seeking opportunities and support to apply to nationally recognized scholarship and fellowship programs. We hope that students will use ONSF as a single, comprehensive source of information for nationally- and internationally-competitive scholarships and fellowships.

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