While evaluating applications for admission the faculty consider the viability of nominating top applicants in a  campus-wide competition for multi-year fellowships. We have resources within the Humanities Division of the College of Letters and Science, the Institute for European Studies, Townsend Center and applicable research units to which we also nominate potential admits.  The department also has a limited amount of resources available dedicated solely to graduate student funding. Admission offers of support are made only when the results of various nominations have been announced. Continuing students participate in a funding “renewal” cycle each year.

Each February all continuing students are asked to submit a detailed statement of their progress toward the degree and specific requests for funding in the following year to the Graduate Committee (composed of all active-duty, tenure-line faculty in the Department). At this time the Graduate Committee will assess each student’s standing in the program and will direct the Graduate Adviser to take appropriate action in cases where progress is less than satisfactory. Support will be allocated based on Departmental funding priorities and as resources permit. Prior written commitments for funding, with the proviso of satisfactory progress toward the degree, have first priority. The Continuing Progress and Funding form is in the FORMS section of the site. We also entertain applications for funding from students outside the department; forms for students outside Italian Studies are also located in the FORMS section.

Graduate Funding Priorities

Applications for funding through the Department of Italian Studies (in the form of GSIships, GSRships, and/or fellowships) are prioritized as follows:

• students to whom written commitments of support have been made made in the Department’s original offer letter;
• M.A./Ph.D students in the first five years of the program and Ph.D only students in the first four years of the program, with satisfactory progress toward the degree;
• M.A./Ph.D students in their 6^th year and Ph.D only students in the fifth year of the program, with satisfactory progress toward the degree;
• All others, based on length of enrollment in the program and progress toward degree.

Please note the following qualifiers:

–Students who have not advanced to candidacy within Normative Time (4 years) are considered to be making insufficient progress toward the degree and fall to the lowest priority.

–Students who are eligible for the Dissertation Completion Fellowship and do not take it (unless to accept another fellowship), will be given the lowest priority. Exceptions can be requested for cause either by the student or by the Department.

–Department traveling fellowships for study or research are available by application. Applicants must offer a detailed justification for the fellowship. Priority will be based on excellence of the proposal and prior funding history. Applications will not be considered if the candidate has access to similar fellowship support from other sources or if she or he has not made a good faith effort to seek funding from such sources.

—M.A. / Ph.D. students beyond the sixth year and Ph.D. only students beyond the fifth year will be funded only if the candidate has made a good faith effort to obtain support from external granting agencies.

—Written commitments of support apply to the years specifically designated in the original offer letter. Such support may not be deferred until later years unless a waiver based on exceptional circumstances has been obtained from the graduate committee.