Students receiving funding through the Graduate School must be admitted to a degree-seeking program and have completed an undergraduate degree at the time of initial enrollment.
Departmental Assistantships
Most academic departments offer teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and/or administrative assistantships. These assistantships involve a biweekly or monthly stipend in exchange for supervised work that both provides professional experience to the student and supports the university in carrying out its mission. Most assistantships also include full or partial tuition scholarships, health insurance, and payment of college/department fees. Prospective and current graduate students should contact the Graduate Program Director for their current/future program to request information regarding the process to follow in order to be considered for an assistantship. Outside of the academic departments, assistantships are sometimes advertised on the UA Student Jobs website.
Additional details regarding assistantship eligibility and enrollment requirements may be found in the Registration and Assistantships section of this catalog. Information regarding the processes for administrative management of assistantships may be found on the Graduate School website.
Graduate School Fellowships
Please see the Paying for Graduate School web page for more details.
Scholarships
Alumni Heritage Graduate Scholarship
The Alumni Heritage Graduate Scholarship is aimed at recruiting children and grandchildren of graduates of The University of Alabama. This is a one-time non-renewable $500 scholarship for graduate students who are classified by The University of Alabama as Alabama residents and who are children or grandchildren of a University of Alabama graduate. A parent or grandparent must be a degree holder (undergraduate, graduate, or law degree) from The University of Alabama. The qualifying parent or grandparent must be a dues-paying member of the National Alumni Association for three of the past five years. The student must be admitted to a graduate degree program at UA and may be enrolled part-time or full-time. The scholarship can only be awarded in the first semester of enrollment as a graduate student. Contact Graduate School to enquire about this scholarship.
Graduate Student Conference and Research Fund
Graduate School provides supplemental funding for graduate student research projects and for graduate student travel to present research results at conferences. Students may submit a maximum of one Conference request and one Research request year (a “year” is defined as fall/spring/summer). Students may initiate requests to the Graduate School by logging in to the Graduate School Student Portal. The request must include a budget, information about departmental cost sharing, and, if travel is involved, a confirmation that the student will be personally presenting their own work. After the student initiates the request, it will be endorsed by the faculty advisor, department chair, and Graduate School.
Conference Awards are reserved for graduate students who have been accepted to present personally their own research (or creative activity) at a national or international meeting of their discipline’s major academic/professional organization. For Research Awards, priority will be given to thesis, pre-dissertation, and dissertation research.
The Graduate School can only provide as much funding as can be matched at least 1:1 by departmental student support funds. During the approval process, the department will indicate the amount they can provide, and the Graduate School will provide the 1:1 match up to the maximum of the following amount:
- Conference travel: $500 within North America; $800 if beyond North America
- Research funding: $300 within North America; $600 if beyond North America
Deadlines for priority consideration:
- Fall proposal: Late August*
- Spring proposals: Late January*
- Summer proposals: Later April*
Contact Graduate School to enquire about the Conference and Research Fund.
*Although every attempt should be made to submit all research and travel proposals by the deadlines for each term, we recognize that last-minute research opportunities present themselves and that student plans may not be complete by these deadlines. The Graduate School will gladly consider requests submitted after the deadline, pending the availability of funding. After the three major deadlines, requests will be reviewed at the end of each month.
Departmental Scholarships and Grants
Many departments and divisions offer special scholarships for graduate students. Contact the Graduate Program Director for the current/future program for more information.
UA Online
UA Online offers scholarship opportunities for distance students. Please see the UA Online website for details.
Federal Financial Aid
Students enrolled in degree programs in the Graduate School are also eligible to apply for federally supported financial aid. Further information can be obtained from the Office of Student Financial Aid.
*Graduate School tuition scholarships only cover regular (distance or on-campus) graduate level classes and mandatory college/course fees. Graduate School tuition scholarships do not cover Law School classes or programs with special tuition rates (for example, the Executive MBA program). Graduate School tuition scholarships also do not cover any individual campus fees, books or other ancillary costs.