Funding and Financial Support

Master of Science Program

While we do not guarantee funding for all of our MS students, we may consider our MS students if we have available teaching assistantships or hourly positions.  Students' application materials (from when they applied to UW), course grades, ​course needs, ​and feedback from professors ​may all be used in order to decide who will be offered TA or hourly positions.  Non-funded students are notified of assignments in advance of the quarter start, but not at the time of admission.  Research assistantships are assigned by faculty and typically to their doctoral advisees first.  Since a position is not guaranteed, we recommend you budget accordingly.  

Doctoral Program

We commit to financial support for five years after admission to the doctoral program. Departmental funding is contingent on satisfactory progress.  Support for an additional period may be granted upon approval of a petition, endorsed by the student’s thesis supervisor, to the Graduate Program Coordinator.  When you fill out your admissions application, you will fill out the Assistantship and Fellowship Form so that we determine eligibility for different forms of support.

Some students enter our department with external fellowships.  Most students continue to apply for fellowships during their program.  We make it a priority to inform students of fellowship opportunities via email or word of mouth.  We also encourage students to find opportunities with their advisor or through funding sources such as the National Science Foundation or the Department of Energy. The graduate school maintains a list of possible fellowships along with their deadlines. Many fellowships have standard deadlines in either November or January/March.

Funding Conditions

All parts of a funded offer are contingent upon:

  • maintaining satisfactory academic progress in our department and the Graduate School, as outlined on individual program pages.  
  • students who are not native speakers of English satisfying the spoken English language proficiency requirement outlined in Graduate School Policy 5.2
  • acceptable outcomes regarding criminal background (if applicable) and sexual misconduct. State law requires that the University of Washington proceed with the Disclosure of Sexual Misconduct Declaration process. (We will contact you directly when this step is needed.) The declaration will require you to disclose any substantiated findings of sexual misconduct, to authorize current and past employers to disclose to the UW any sexual misconduct currently being investigated and/or committed by you, and to release current and past employers from any liability. If the results of the disclosure are unacceptable, you will not be offered a position at the UW.  This law is not tied to admission or being a student, it is only a requirement of employment. 
  • a student's responsibility to maintain authorization to work.
  • all employees of the University of Washington must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit an attestation to verify their vaccination status.

Additional Funding Resources

Graduate Funding Information Services
UW Graduate School List of Fellowships
Office of Financial Aid
Veteran Education Benefits
UW Hires 
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