Department of Anthropology
Site Contents
Financial Assistance
The anthropology program offers financial support in the form of a teaching assistantship (TA), a research assistantship (RA), or a fellowship on a competitive basis to qualified students. Financial support includes a monthly stipend, with amounts determined by the College of Liberal Arts or the Graduate School, and a waiver of tuition.
Applicants to the graduate program are automatically considered for departmental funding. No separate application or additional information is required.
To be considered for the widest possible range of financial support your application form and all of the required supporting documents should be received by January 15th. After March 1st your chance of receiving financial aid for the following fall semester is substantially reduced.
The most common form of financial aid is the teaching assistantship which pays a monthly stipend for living expenses and which pays for all but a small amount of tuition and fees. Duties required do not always involve teaching; the student may, for example, assist a faculty member in preparing or grading examinations or may conduct discussion sections for courses.
We normally begin making offers of teaching assistantships in March. Sometimes, those offers are declined; in such a case, we then offer the teaching assistantship to the next best qualified applicant on our list. Although we make offers of financial aid as quickly as possible, in a few instances offers will be delayed.
A student may not receive more than four semesters of departmental funding toward the MS degree. A student who is not funded for the first year in the MS program is eligible for only one year of funding prior to completion of the MS degree (funding is not intended to provide for a third year of work toward the MS degree). With an MS degree from this department, a student will typically receive no more than four semesters of additional funding while working on the PhD degree. Normally, this will include two semesters during the student’s first year, and two more semesters after the completion of PhD fieldwork. A student entering with an MS degree from another institution may receive up to an additional two semesters of funding during the period of transition to the PhD program (i.e., up to a total of four semesters prior to dissertation field work). A student who has already been funded at the PhD level and who then receives outside funding or a Purdue Research Foundation dissertation grant may exceed the four or six semester maximum.
Each spring, the anthropology faculty evaluates funded students’ progress toward degree completion and the quality of their teaching assistant work. For students in the first year of the MS program, particular attention is paid to making satisfactory progress in assembling a committee and developing the thesis proposal. Students found deficient either in progress toward the degree or in teaching quality may not receive renewed funding.
We are able to offer financial aid only to some of those students whom we admit to graduate study in this department, and such offers are made to students whose academic credentials and qualifications are the highest among those who are applying for admission at a given time. Nevertheless, there is a possibility (but no guarantee) that a new graduate student who enters this department without financial support from this department may receive such support after several semesters. This would depend on the student's academic performance at Purdue, as well as upon the availability of funds to the department and the relative qualifications of incoming new graduate students.
More information regarding fellowship opportunities and additional Purdue University funding sources is available on the Graduate School website.
Information regarding student loans is available from the Purdue Division of Financial Aid.
For more information, please contact the Graduate Committee secretary, Patricia Mason, at patty@purdue.edu or (765) 496-7428.
Purdue University Graduate School
Purdue Division of Financial Aid
Applicants to the graduate program are automatically considered for departmental funding. No separate application or additional information is required.
To be considered for the widest possible range of financial support your application form and all of the required supporting documents should be received by January 15th. After March 1st your chance of receiving financial aid for the following fall semester is substantially reduced.
The most common form of financial aid is the teaching assistantship which pays a monthly stipend for living expenses and which pays for all but a small amount of tuition and fees. Duties required do not always involve teaching; the student may, for example, assist a faculty member in preparing or grading examinations or may conduct discussion sections for courses.
We normally begin making offers of teaching assistantships in March. Sometimes, those offers are declined; in such a case, we then offer the teaching assistantship to the next best qualified applicant on our list. Although we make offers of financial aid as quickly as possible, in a few instances offers will be delayed.
A student may not receive more than four semesters of departmental funding toward the MS degree. A student who is not funded for the first year in the MS program is eligible for only one year of funding prior to completion of the MS degree (funding is not intended to provide for a third year of work toward the MS degree). With an MS degree from this department, a student will typically receive no more than four semesters of additional funding while working on the PhD degree. Normally, this will include two semesters during the student’s first year, and two more semesters after the completion of PhD fieldwork. A student entering with an MS degree from another institution may receive up to an additional two semesters of funding during the period of transition to the PhD program (i.e., up to a total of four semesters prior to dissertation field work). A student who has already been funded at the PhD level and who then receives outside funding or a Purdue Research Foundation dissertation grant may exceed the four or six semester maximum.
Each spring, the anthropology faculty evaluates funded students’ progress toward degree completion and the quality of their teaching assistant work. For students in the first year of the MS program, particular attention is paid to making satisfactory progress in assembling a committee and developing the thesis proposal. Students found deficient either in progress toward the degree or in teaching quality may not receive renewed funding.
We are able to offer financial aid only to some of those students whom we admit to graduate study in this department, and such offers are made to students whose academic credentials and qualifications are the highest among those who are applying for admission at a given time. Nevertheless, there is a possibility (but no guarantee) that a new graduate student who enters this department without financial support from this department may receive such support after several semesters. This would depend on the student's academic performance at Purdue, as well as upon the availability of funds to the department and the relative qualifications of incoming new graduate students.
More information regarding fellowship opportunities and additional Purdue University funding sources is available on the Graduate School website.
Information regarding student loans is available from the Purdue Division of Financial Aid.
For more information, please contact the Graduate Committee secretary, Patricia Mason, at patty@purdue.edu or (765) 496-7428.
Purdue University Graduate School
Purdue Division of Financial Aid