Teaching assistantships and tuition scholarships are awarded by the CIS Department. All applications for the CIS graduate program that are received by the financial aid deadline are automatically considered for these positions. No separate application is necessary. However, aid is very competitive and not all admitted students can expect to receive funding.

Research assistantships are generally decided by individual faculty who have grants and contracts to support research assistants participating in their research projects. During the admissions process, we routinely show the applications of our topmost applicants to faculty in the appropriate research areas to be considered for possible RA positions. Other students interested in an RA position should contact the individual faculty members directly. It is best if you contact at most one or two faculty whose research interests match your interests closely; blindly sending emails to a larger group is considered spam and will be counter-productive.

University fellowships are very few and only a limited number may be available to the department in any given semester. The process of application is the same as for teaching assistantships (see above).  However, most fellowships are awarded to current students, and it is rare for a newly admitted student to be offered a fellowship.

As a general rule, most financial aid in the CIS Department is offered to PhD applicants only. In special cases, outstanding applicants to the MS program may be considered for aid.

Graduate assistantships in other departments may also be available, but these awards are not determined by the CIS Department. Most commonly, students apply for such positions after they arrive on campus. There is of course no guarantee that any such positions will be available in any given semester.