Financial Aid
Financial Aid for New Students
Qualified applicants to the MA, MFA, and PhD programs will be awarded Teaching Assistantships. All incoming and current students will be considered for every kind of available funding based on the evidence of achievement shown by the undergraduate (and graduate) record, the writing sample, GRE scores, and letters of recommendation. First-year MA and MFA assistantships include either supervision of technical writing sessions and teaching composition. PhD candidates teach one course per semester.. These are renewable (two years, MA and MFA; four years, PhD) based on satisfactory academic and teaching performance. Assistantships currently range in stipend from $9,300 (MA and MFA) to $10,200–$11,400 (PhD).
Annual increases for stipends are negotiated by the Graduate Assistants United (UFF/NEA), the graduate students’ union. Tuition waivers are normally provided for Assistantships. Assistants without prior teaching experience must take the Theories and Practices of Writing (3 hours) during their first year and receive a grade of “B” or better. At the present time, a substantial number of Teaching Assistants receive, as well, competetively awarded summer Teaching Assistantships: one six-week course during the summer term at an additional stipend of at least $3,100.
The Department of English has a limited number of three-year Grinter Fellowships (usually $2,000–$4,000 per year) with which to supplement awards to outstanding doctoral candidates.
Incoming students working in American literature and/or creative writing are eligible for the Baskin-Rawlings Fellowship ($1,000–$4,000 for one, two, or three years, renewable subject to terms of appointment and review of satisfactory progress).
The most highly qualified new students in Victorian studies or studies in oral narrative folklore (including cultural studies) are eligible for the Kirkland Fellowships (for MA: $5,000 each year for two years plus, if desired, assistantship with tuition waiver during those two years; for PhD: $17,500 all four academic years, with teaching assistantship in years 1-3 and no teaching in year 4 (tuition waivers throughout).
Incoming students in the MA program are eligible for the T. Walter Herbert Fellowship (a one-time annual award of $1,000).
Incoming female students of the MFA program are eligible for the Rebecca Elizabeth Porter Creative Writing Fellowship (a one-time annual award of $1000).
The Department also nominates new and current students for available fellowships from UF and the College of Liberal Arts.
Applications for admission with financial aid for the 2012–2013 academic year must be received by January 14, 2012.
Financial Aid for Current Students
Current graduate students are encouraged to explore fellowship opportunities available to them both within and outside the university. In addition to the funding sources noted below, predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowship information is available in the Career Resources section of the Library in Turlington 4012A.
- Current students in the MA and PhD programs working in the fields of Medieval or Renaissance literatures are eligible for the Robert Bowers Fellowship (a one-time annual award of $1,000).
- The Kirkland Dissertation Fellowship supports dissertation research and writing for doctoral students in this department working in the fields of Victorian literature or folklore studies.
- The Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research adminstrates several scholarships of interest to current graduate students at UF, including the Ruth O. McQuown Scholarship.
- The Jacob K. Javits Fellowship provides 4-year fellowships for students applying to graduate school or in their first year of graduate study.
- The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation administrates a variety of fellowship programs for graduate students.
- The Ford Foundation offers predoctoral, dissertation, and postdoctoral fellowships for minorities.
- The AAUW Education Foundation offers fellowships of interest to women graduate students and recent graduates.
- The UF Honors Program, Awards Division web page lists information on a variety of fellowship opportunities.
