Funding & Tuition

Funding

Graduate Appointments

Graduate students who hold an appointment as a teaching, research, or project assistant at UW-Madison will be entitled to remission of tuition in any semester in which their appointment equals at least 33% of a full-time appointment for the semester. The student must pay segregated fees and any special fees adopted by the legislature. Other types of University employment do not qualify an individual for remission of tuition.

Financial Aid

For the promotion of scholarship and research UW-Madison administers several different forms of financial aid for graduate students, including:

Fellowships
Teaching assistantships
Scholarships
Research or project assistantships
Loans

Most Communication Arts departmental awards are made in the form of teaching assistantships. These awards are made on the basis of grades, GRE scores, and the applicant's background and preparation.

The Department of Communication Arts, unless otherwise indicated, does not require a separate application for financial aid -- only the complete application form for admission with supporting documents listed previously. The complete application must be received by us no later than December 15 in order to be considered for financial aid. Students can indicate on the application form specific awards in which they are interested and for which they may be eligible. Many financial aid awards will reduce to the resident rate the amount a student must pay for tuition.

Fellowships

Fellows are selected in a campus-wide fellowship competition which is open to students in all fields at any stage of graduate study. Stipends in 2006 range from $7,560/semester to $15,120/academic year. Fellowship awards are announced by offer letters in early March.

There are special application forms and deadlines, often in the fall, for the fellowship programs (such as National Science Foundation, Foreign Language and Area Studies Program, Fulbright-Hays, Churchill) administered by different federal and non-federal agencies. Obtain information from the Graduate School Fellowship Office or your current undergraduate institution.

Student Awards

The Communication Arts Department is pleased to be able to grant yearly monetary awards to graduate students based on scholastic performance. The amount and number of awards vary from year to year depending on portfolio performance. Listed here are the official criteria against which the awards are given, as well as the number and amount awarded in the previous year.

General Criteria

Students must be continuing in the program and resident scholars.
Satisfactory progress may be grounds to prefer one student over another.

Wackman Award

Official Criteria: Awarded to residents of the State of Wisconsin for scholarly work.
Past Practice: Nothing more than official criteria. An individual may receive this award more than once.

Helen K. Herman Award

Official Criteria: Consideration for academic ability, need, and extra-curricular activities.
Past Practice: In addition to academic ability, we have given considerable weight to need. As for extra-curricular activities, we have used this award to show appreciation for those students who have taken on extra teaching responsibilities (e.g., as a lecturer in a production class). An individual may receive this award more than once.

Risser Award
- Official Criteria: A female graduate student of high achievement and promise.
- Past Practice: Given to the "Outstanding Female Graduate Student." We have tried to give this to someone close to prelims (either before or after) with the expectation that it would help with the dissertation. Usually it is given to someone who is post-prelims for the simple reasons that the chances of significant achievement increase with time. It may be given in any area, but no individual should receive this more than once.
Frankenburger Award
- Official Criteria: "Scholarship in Speech"
- Past Practice: This had been given for something related to forensics. Recently we have treated it as an award for excellence in teaching public speaking (1997) and general achievement (1996). It may be given to a student in any area concentration, but no individual should receive the award more than once.
Pearce Award
- Official Criteria: "For the purpose of funding student research or encouraging and "improving performance skills."
- Past Practice: In 1997, the criteria were the same as those for the McCarty Coursework Award (see below).
Wickhem Award
- Official Criteria: Excellence in Broadcasting
- Past Practice: This is typically given to the grad student that TAs one of the production courses.
Departmental Teaching Award
- Official Criteria: Excellence in teaching
- Past Practice: When a student is put forward for the College teaching award but does not win at that level, this can be used to ensure that the student's teaching is recognized. When the student does win at the College level, this can be given to other students who were under consideration. Typically, this will go to a student in his or her third year or beyond because it usually takes this long to build a credible record of excellence. It may be given in any area but no individual should receive the award more than once
Elliott Dissertation Scholarship
- This is to provide flexible funding to aid students in the early stages of their PhD dissertation research and can be used for such expenses as travel to collections or archives, photocopies, movie rentals, cost of videotapes, costs related to social scientific research experiments, and the like.
- Guidelines: The purpose of these scholarships is to provide an initial boost to dissertation research. Students must be in residence at the time of the application and continue to be in residence for the duration of the award. To receive consideration, applications must be received by the Graduate Committee no later than two years after a student has passed his or her prelims