Graduate

Fellowships & Support

All students admitted to the Department of German receive six years of support in the form of fellowships and Graduate Student Instructor teaching positions. 

In addition to fellowships that are offered upon admission through the Department of German, graduate students are eligible for numerous further fellowships, grants, and monetary awards. These include Mentored Research Awards, Conference Travel Grants, Max Kade Summer Travel Grants, Student Parent Grants, Foreign Language and Area Studies Awards, the Philip Brett LGBT Studies Fellowship, and Bancroft Library Study Awards. 

Students may spend a year of dissertation work in a German-speaking country with the assistance of a Doctoral Completion Fellowship, which is available to all students whose progress follows to the normative PhD timeline. After passing the qualifying exam, students are also eligible for UC Berkeley’s Townsend Dissertation Fellowships and Institute of International Studies Dissertation Fellowships. 

Many of our students also receive extramural fellowships from Mellon/American Council of Learned Societies, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Fulbright Program and the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies. The Graduate Division provides a listing of further funding opportunities.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the fellowship section in the Graduate Application must be filled out by all applicants in order to render them eligible for fellowships and financial aid. Students may also apply for need-based loans and work study funds through the Graduate Financial Aid Office. Under federal guidelines, all graduate students are considered independent. In order to maintain their fellowship status, students must be enrolled and making satisfactory academic progress toward their degrees.