Office of Graduate Studies and Research : Graduate Funding

Graduate Student Funding

The Grad Office helps coordinate a number of funding opportunities for graduate students, to help with the costs of tuition and living expenses, as well as the costs of graduate research and creative projects.

• Graduate Tuition and Fees
• Assistantships
• Grants and fellowships
• Scholarships
• Financial aid
• Student employment

Graduate Tuition and Fees

CWU's Office of the Registrar provides the most up-to-date information on graduate tuition rates as well as quarterly fees.

Assistantships

Central Washington University offers a number of assistantships during the academic year to beginning and continuing graduate students.

Graduate assistantships are available in each of CWU's graduate program departments. Nearly two-thirds of the University's graduate assistants teach; the remainder serve as research assistants with a few performing University service functions.

Graduate assistants are normally selected during the months of March and April for the subsequent academic year. For full consideration, applications should be filed before February 1. Later applications will be given consideration if positions become available. Award announcements are not made until sometime after April 15.

In some cases, but not all, non-resident graduate student assistants are assessed state resident tuition and their fee waivers are applied against this amount.

A very limited number of graduate assistantships are available during the summer term.

2009-2010 Graduate Assistant Package

Item	In-state (US dollars)	Out-of-state (US dollars)
Tuition waiver	$7,353	$16,383
Stipend	$8,100	$8,100
Health insurance	$829	$829
CWU Health Center fees	$216	$216
Total assistantship package	$16,498	$25,528

Grants and fellowships

The graduate office provides two competitive fellowship programs and a travel grant program to help graduate students with research and creative activities.

The Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship provides a $2,800 stipend for students to conduct research over ten weeks during the summer, usually between the student's first and second year of graduate study. The research may be related to a student's thesis, but does not have to be.

The Master's Research or Creative Activity Fellowship provides up to a $700 stipend for students to conduct research over ten weeks during the summer. The research may be related to a student's thesis, but does not have to be.

The Travel Grant program makes available to graduate students up to $400 to travel to a conference or meeting at which they are presenting their work.

Scholarships

Scholarship Central maintains an extensive list of general and CWU-only scholarships, as well as pointers to databases of scholarship opportunities. Scholarship Central makes available a page dedicated to graduate student scholarships.

Financial aid

Financial aid is also available through the university from federal and state funds for students demonstrating financial need. Applications should be made directly to the CWU Financial Aid Office by March 1.

Student employment

Employment both on and off campus is available; the CWU Student Employment Office will have details on some available positions.