There are three types of financial support: merit-based, need-based, and assistantship.

FELLOWSHIPS

Merit-based financial aid is defined predominantly in terms of departmentally administered awards on the one hand and “restricted” fellowships on the other.

1. Departmental Grants
The Department has at its disposal a limited amount of funds for fellowship assistance to its graduate students. To apply for such departmental financial support new students need only complete the "Application for Graduate Admission, Fellowship and Financial Aid." Continuing graduate students should complete the form enclosed in the Graduate Fellowship and Assistantship publication Graduate Student Support. At least one letter of recommendation (from the student’s advisor), but preferably two, should be submitted with the application. Students are responsible to see that all deadlines are met and that supporting materials are submitted in time to meet deadlines.

2. Conference and Research Travel
The Department has a limited amount of money for graduate student travel to deliver a paper at a scholarly conference or to carry out research at facilities away from UCLA. Additional information may be obtained from the Student Affairs Officer or from the Graduate Advisor.

3. Chancellor’s Fellowship
The Chancellor’s Fellowship is a merit-based fellowship limited to first year Ph.D. students with outstanding academic records. Unlike all other awards, students do not apply for this fellowship. Instead, qualified students are nominated by the Department and selected by the Fellowship and Assistantship Section of the Graduate Division. Recipients of the prestigious Chancellor’s Fellowship will receive a substantial stipend ($16,500 in 2003-04) plus fees and tuition (if required). Students will also receive at least two additional years of support in the form of fellowship, teaching assistantships, research assistantships, contingent upon continuing academic achievement. The fourth year of Chancellor’s Fellowship support will be a dissertation year fellowship which will be awarded after the student is advanced to candidacy for the doctorate.

4. Eugene V. Cota-Robles Award
The Cota-Robles Award is a merit-based fellowship limited to first year Ph.D. students with outstanding academic records. Qualified student are nominated by the Department and selected by the Fellowship and Assistantship Section of the Graduate Division. This is a 4-year funding package. For the first year, the Graduate Division will award fellowship funding of $15,000 (in 2003-04) stipend plus fees, and nonresident tuition when necessary. The Graduate Department will also provide a second year of equivalent support (to be scheduled as appropriate in the second, third, or fourth year) in the form of a RA/Mentorship award. The Department will provide two years or more of equivalent support.

5. Title VI
The Gustave von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies (10286 Bunche Hall) administers Title VI fellowships for language study. The application form is the same as that mentioned above. Interested students should contact the Center to ascertain what supporting materials are needed and deadlines for application.

6. Humanities Division Awards
There are various fellowships and awards for travel and for dissertation research, which are administered by the Humanities Division. Since these are different from year to year and are not listed in a single place, students should consult the departmental -bulletin board regularly and express their interest to the Department staff

7. Graduate Opportunity Fellowship
The purpose of the Graduate Opportunity Fellowship Program is to provide support for the entering students who are pursuing either terminal or professional master’s degrees or the ID. The fellowship is designed to foster graduate study by facilitating the academic career development of student’s who have experienced educational disadvantage thus far in their schooling, or from groups whose participation in academic careers has consistently been low. The fellowship provides support for students during their first year of graduate study. The fellowship consists of $10,000 (1998-99) stipend plus registration fees and, if necessary, nonresident tuition.

8. Dissertation -Year Fellowship
This program is intended for students who are in their final year of graduate school and who are planning to start teaching and research appointments soon after the end of their dissertation fellowship year. Applicants must be nominated by their Department. The program is open to all doctoral candidates who are advanced to candidacy at the time of nomination, and are within one year of completing the dissertation. Students in any school, department, or interdepartmental program offering the doctorate are eligible. The fellowship consists of $15,000 (2003-04) stipend and a $500 research allowance, and mandatory fees (excluding nonresident tuition), for a total projected award of $21,817. Award recipients are expected to file their dissertation within 12 months of beginning their fellowship and will be asked to submit a report of their progress at midyear. Application materials must include a timeline of expected progress for completion of the dissertation. The timeline is a crucial element in evaluating applicants for a Dissertation Year Fellowship and should be detailed and specific as possible. No student, who has received a Dissertation Fellowship in the past from the Graduate Division or has received dissertation funding from other sources specifically for the last year of write-up, is eligible for a Dissertation Year Fellowship or any other Graduate Division funding. Awardees must be registered and enrolled during the academic year. In no case may they be employed over 25% time during the duration of’ their fellowship. Awardees offered other awards prior to the offer of Dissertation Year Fellowships may, at the sponsor’s or department’s discretion, be required to relinquish all or part of such awards. In no case may a student hold two major awards concurrently, or receive fee awards exceeding the actual amount of fees. See the Student Affairs Officer for the application materials and deadline date.

9. Research Assistantship/Mentorship Program
The Research Assistantship/Mentorship Program is designed to assist recipients in acquiring and developing advanced research skills under faculty mentorship. Students will receive a stipend of $15,000 (2003-04), plus registration fees (excluding nonresident tuition). If invited to present the results of their collaborative activities at a conference, awardees may receive up to $500 toward their travel expenses.

The program is a campuswide program open to second, third, and fourth year doctoral students who are not yet at the dissertation stage and not advanced to candidacy. Applicants must be nominated by their department. All nominees must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Applications from all areas will be reviewed with special consideration given to applicants from disciplines where research assistantship funding is generally less available. Individuals from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in graduate education are especially encouraged to apply for the program. A letter of recommendation from the faculty member, who will serve as the mentor, describing the mentor relationship and the project that the student will complete during the year is required. Awardees will be asked to submit evaluations of their participation in this program quarterly and their mentors will be asked to submit evaluations at the end of the academic year. A brief (2-4 pages) proposal outlining a schedule of training goals and activities for the academic years is required along with a resume or curriculum vitae. See the Student Affairs Officer for the application materials and deadline date.

10. Armenian Student Fellowships
There are three fellowships restricted to Armenian students. These are the Kareken Der Avedisian Memorial Endowment Fund, which provides one scholarship to a graduate student whose major field is Armenian studies and shows outstanding need or outstanding academic ability; the Kaspar Hovannisian Memorial Scholarship, which provides a fellowship to a graduate student in the field of Armenian studies with preference given to Armenian History; and the Mangasar M. Mangasarian Fellowship, which provides several awards to continuing Armenian students of Armenian descent.

11. Other Graduate Division Restricted Fellowships
There are several other restricted fellowships for which some of both our continuing and entering graduate students may qualify for. These are listed in the annual publication UCLA Graduate Student Support, which contains the general fellowship application forms for continuing graduate students. It is available in the Department or from the Graduate Division. Student may also inquire as to special fellowship offers in the Academic Support and Information Services in 1252 Murphy Hall.

12. Roshan Fellowship
The Roshan Institute (www.roshan-institute.org) has endowed a graduate fellowship for an outstanding Ph.D. student in Iranian Studies in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. This fellowship is earmarked for Ph.D. students working in any aspect of Persian language and literature and Iranian culture and civilization, broadly defined. The fellowship will pay a stipend of $15,000/year and quarterly fees pending the market income for this fellowship. Applications for the fellowship are due on December 1, 2006 and should be given to the department Student Affairs Officer. Application materials should include a resume, statement of purpose, transcripts and two letters of recommendation from referees familiar with your work.

 

FINANCIAL AID

Need-based financial aid is administered by the Financial Aid Office of the University. Frequently this type of aid involves a package comprised of loans, grants, work/study and stipends. Information and financial aid counseling can be obtained at Murphy Hall A 107. Students must submit the appropriate application to the financial aid office as well as supporting materials. It is important that close attention be paid to deadlines to ensure eligibility for aid.

TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS

The Department has a limited number of Teaching Assistantships available in the following sections: Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Jewish Studies, Persian, and Turkish. Teaching Assistantships work under faculty supervision, but they have broad classroom responsibilities. As a consequence, the Department has to treat its teaching assistantships primarily as an instructional resource. When the Department does not find qualified teaching assistants within its own body of graduate students, it sometimes hires graduate students in other departments; and when no qualified student is found, the Department sometimes hires a nonstudent.

Applicants, especially first time applicants, are asked to submit a resume including names of those who can provide us with information on any matter relative to the applicant’s teaching qualifications. Letters of recommendation from instructors at UCLA with whom the applicant has studied are welcome. Ordinarily, letters are not necessary from faculty members in the Section in which the student is seeking an appointment, since all applications are in any event routed to the section. However, if a faculty member will be on leave in the spring quarter of the year in which the appointment is to be made for the following fall, the applicant should certainly request a letter of recommendation.

Applications are due the first week in February. Decisions are made by the end of the Spring quarter. Except in rare circumstances, students will not be awarded teaching assistantships before having completed at least one year of graduate study at UCLA. Teaching assistants will be required to engage in no more than six contact hours a week, and be enrolled in a minimum of twelve units, four of which may be Near Eastern Languages 375.

TEACHING APPRENTICE PRACTICUM

In addition to department awarded GSR scholarships, some professors have funds for Research Assistantships enabling students to participate in faculty guided research projects. Research Assistantships are appointed directly by each professor who has funds so allocated. It is not infrequent that research assistantship funds become available in midyear. Students should watch for announcements posted in the Department.