Financial Aid

The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures has two principal types of awards: graduate assistanships and tuition scholarships

Graduate assistants may be assigned to the classroom as teaching assistants (6 classroom hours per week), to the Media Center (16-20 hours per week), to individual faculty to serve as research assistants (16-20 hours per week) or to the Writing Center as writing assistants.

First semester graduate students who teach are assigned as team-teachers of elementary or intermediate foreign language courses and teach about six hours per week. Experienced instructors take the M/W portion of the 4 day-a-week course, while graduate students are responsible for the T/Th portion. Second semester graduate students may be permitted to teach an entire 4 day-a-week course on their own. The stipend for the 2009-2010 year will be $15,200.

Terms

Financial Aid is offered only to students whose major or primary field is in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, except for exchange students in connection with our study abroad programs.

Awards are usually renewed for a second year when the student’s work (as teacher and as student) is satisfactory. Funding is normally limited to two years. Students who go abroad for a semester or a year are not considered funded during the time abroad. Thus, a student who has one year on campus as a graduate assistant, or a tuition scholar, then goes abroad for a semester, will still be eligible for two semesters of funding upon his/her return. However, students cannot be funded for any given semester unless they need at least six credits of graded graduate courses in order to complete the requirement for the degree. Hence, the student who takes five courses in the first year and then earns six credits (two courses) during a semester abroad, will be funded for only one additional semester upon his/her return.

Students who enter the graduate program with six or more transfer credits (from CEND or another institution) will normally be entitled to a maximum of three semesters of funding.

Students who elect a double major may request a fifth semester of funding. However, they are encouraged to try to complete their degree in two years by taking advantage of the thesis option.

While an extension may be granted under special circumstances, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures is not obligated to fund or otherwise support students in their third year if they have not completed all requirements for the MA degree. In case of vacancies for instruction at the 100-level, the Department will try to find other candidates before rehiring graduate students who have not completed the MA degree requirements.

Fully-funded graduate students in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (i.e. students on Graduate Assistantships) may, in addition to tasks performed in connection with their assistantships, work up to 10 additional hours for the University, providing they maintain a 3.0 GPA and fulfill all of their contractual obligations to the department in a satisfactory manner. Students with compelling reasons for working more than the 10 additional hours outside the Department may address their appeals in writing to the Graduate Studies Committee.