Funding

Who Gets Funded?

Everyone. Our program funds about fifty students each year, reserving stipends for approximately a dozen new students each year. Although we allow late applications to the program without funding, our initial offers are for fully-funded spots.

How Much Funding is Available?

The base stipend for the 2007-2008 academic year will be $14,000 for the nine-month academic year.  All students on stipend receive free tuition during Fall and Spring semesters and have the opportunity to purchase at minimal cost the University's graduate student accident and sickness insurance plan. Students are also eligible to teach in the summer or winter sessions (depending on course availability) for extra income.

How Long Does the Funding Last?

As long as satisfactory progress toward degree is being made, we guarantee funding for the two years of the MA program and for the three years of the Ph.D. Students who take longer than three years to complete the Ph.D. can have their tuition paid if they teach two courses per semester on a contract basis.

What are the Funding Opportunities?

Most students receive their funding for teaching three courses per year. Some teach fewer courses and do tutoring in the University Writing Center. And still others serve as research assistants to individual professors in the English Department. Our program also places graduate students in assistantships in other units in the university, such as the English Department's Writing Program, the library's Special Collections department and the Winterthur library.

What are the Fellowship Opportunities?

We aim to provide each third-year Ph.D. student with a fellowship to relieve them of teaching duties and facilitate work on the dissertation.

UNIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS
The program nominates students each year for year-long university fellowships, awarded
by the University of Delaware’s Office of Graduate Studies and including the University Graduate Scholars Award (primarily used to recruit minority and
underrepresented graduate students to the university), the University Graduate Fellows Award (English nominates only students entering their 3rd year of the Ph.D. program and engaged in dissertation writing), and the University Dissertation Fellows Award (for dissertation writers in the 4th year of Ph.D. work).

DEPARTMENTAL DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIPS
The program receives a limited number of semester-long fellowships from the College of
Arts and Sciences each year and awards them to 3rd-year Ph.D. students on a competitive
basis in order to support work on the dissertation.

SUMMER RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
A limited number of Summer Research Fellowships, worth $4,500, are awarded by the
Graduate Program annually to promote graduate student research and publication. All
continuing graduate students are eligible, and there is no limit to the number of times a
continuing student can receive a fellowship. These fellowships are awarded on a
competitive basis, and recipients must agree not to perform any other paid work during
the fellowship period.

For more information about these opportunities, please see the Program Handbook.

Department of English, 212 Memorial Hall
University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
Phone: 302.831.2361   Fax: 302.831.1586   Email: english@udel.edu