Please also see the Comparative Literature graduate program website for more information.
The Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies makes every effort to support qualified graduate students. The total package offered to excellent students is financially competitive with other major institutions and intellectually supportive because of the valuable teaching experience it affords.
Candidates with distinguished scholarly records have received one year and multi-year fellowship support packages that include funding for tuition and health insurance. Such support enables students—during the first year and alternate years subsequently—to concentrate all their effort and attention on course work, examinations and the completion of their dissertation. Qualified advanced students who did not receive central fellowships upon their admission may be nominated for continuing fellowships, most part of the time once they have advanced to candidacy. These awards are university-wide competitions for dissertation-year fellowships. We also encourage our graduate students to enter competitions for prestigious extramural fellowships. Our Graduate Division is most helpful in that regard and organizes regular workshops to help candidates with their applications. In order to be eligible for fellowships, incoming students must complete their online application and submit all required documents by December 15.
The Stuart Atkins Fellowship, an endowment named after the distinguished late professor of German and Comparative Literature, will award qualifying students with one to three quarters of teaching or research fellowships.
Research in the humanities is encouraged and supported in many other ways as well. Advanced graduate students may apply to the Graduate Student Humanities/Social Sciences Research Grant Program, which awards grants of up to $2,000. Doctoral students doing interdisciplinary research may apply for Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Predoctoral Fellowships, which award up to $4,500. Tuition fellowships may also be granted to out-of-state students with distinguished records. Graduate students may also apply for graduate student travel funds and intercampus exchange funds that enable them to use library and research facilities at other UC campuses, Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and the Huntington Library.
Most financial support for graduate students in German comes from teaching assistantships. Students are responsible (with supervision) for teaching a variety of German language courses at various levels. Teaching assistantships currently provide a salary $5,885 per quarter, plus health insurance and partial fee remission for the academic year. Please see the Teaching page for additional information.
Funding for the final years of the academic career are also available for qualifying students. The Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship offers a stipend of $5,000 plus payment of fees and health insurance, intended to enable full attention to dissertation writing. Meritorious students may also apply to the President's Dissertation Year Fellowship, which provides a $15,000 stipend, plus a $500 research allowance, and payment of fees and health insurance. Fellows are also required to present their research at UCSB.
Teaching
One source of financial support for German graduate students comes from teaching assistantships. Graduate students who serve as German teaching assistants instruct a variety of courses ranging from elementary and intermediate language to conversation classes and occasionally literature courses. All German teaching assistants participate in the TA training program under the guidance of Professor Evelyn Wade, the director of the German language program. The training program begins with an orientation workshop prior to the fall quarter. TAs enroll in a teaching practicum every quarter and meet weekly to discuss the underlying theoretical principles of language acquisition as well as methodologies and practical applications relevant to the teaching of German as a foreign language. The first- and second-year German classes are "communicatively" based with a focus on accuracy and proficiency. They are supplemented with computer programs including grammar exercises, web-based activities, and a CD-ROM for reading short stories.
Teaching assistantships currently provide a salary of $5,885 per quarter. Teaching Assistants also receive a partial fee remission that covers resident tuition, student fees, and student health insurance.
Fees & Tuition
Tuition and fees for attending the graduate program are determined by the UCSB Graduate Division. An up-to-date schedule of tuition rates and fees for both Residents and Non-Residents of California is available on their site. Please see the Registrar's current fee schedule.
Although living costs vary widely according to taste and lifestyle, Graduate Division offers as a guideline this estimate for a single graduate student living in Santa Barbara for 9 months.