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Financial Assistance

The Department of Communication admits an average of four applicants each year for entry in the fall term. For those admitted, the department normally provides five years of teaching assistantships or non-teaching fellowships that include a full-tuition scholarship, free public transportation, and a stipend for teaching services or full-time research.

Fully funded doctoral first-year students (including students without an M.A. in hand) who will have completed their first year of full-time doctoral study in residence by the start of the fellowship and who will have passed their departmental plan of study by the end of their second semester in residence are also eligible to apply for departmental $3,000 summer research support grants. Students can apply for summer teaching in their subsequent years in the program.

Students with teaching assistantships typically begin their teaching either as an assistant for a large-lecture introductory undergraduate communication course or as a teacher for standalone sections of public speaking. As they move through the program, students typically have opportunities to teach standalone versions of the introductory classes they have assisted with as well as to design and implement standalone sections of other lower-level undergraduate courses.

University of Pittsburgh Assistance

  • Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowships in the Humanities
  • Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowships in Chinese Studies
  • Cultural Studies Fellowships
  • Donald B. Egolf Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (resumes for 2021)
  • Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships
  • Graduate Tuition Scholarships
  • Humanities Center Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship
  • Japanese Iron and Steel/Mitsubishi Graduate Fellowships in Japanese Studies
  • Latin American Social and Public Policy Fellowships
  • Leroy K. Irvis Fellowships for Students from Groups Underrepresented in the Academy
  • Nationality Room Fellowships
  • Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Communication Summer Research Fellowship
  • Pitt Alumni Association Graduate Awards
  • Provost's Development Fund Fellowships
  • Provost's Humanities Fellowships
  • Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Student Research Funds
  • Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Teaching Fellowships

External Funding Sources

  • American Association for University Women, American Dissertation Fellowships
  • American Association for University Women, International Fellowships
  • American Council of Learned Societies/Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowships
  • DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service)
  • Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships, Predoctoral Fellowships
  • Fulbright Doctoral Fellowships
  • Pivot Database (many internal and external opportunities)
  • Swann Foundation Fellowship (Library of Congress)
  • Woodrow Wilson Foundation, Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships