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Financing Graduate Studies
Fellowships
The chair of the program may nominate applicants for a Lynn Fellowship, which supports students during their first year. These fellowships are limited and highly competitive within the university.
Graduate students at Purdue may also be eligible for other fellowships, both national and within the university.
Assistantships
Most graduate students in the Comparative Literature Program hold a teaching assistantship either in the Department of English or the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. There are occasional fellowships. Teaching assistantships currently pay about $12,000 per year in addition to a waiver of tuition and fees. Tuition for summer courses taken between teaching semesters is likewise waived.
Eligibility for a teaching assistantship in the Department of English is determined by the Director of Freshman Composition. International students applying for a teaching assistantship must have a minimum TOEFL score of 620 or higher (or 260, computer based) and a TOEFL iBt score of 27. All test scores must be official from the testing center. If you wish to be considered for a teaching assistantship, we encourage you to include, either in your statement of purpose or among your letters of recommendation (or in both), an indication of your experience and/or interest in teaching. The deadline for applications for teaching assistantships is usually the middle of February. You are advised, however, to apply earlier.
Graduate students who receive teaching assistantships are closely supervised in their first year by members of the faculty. Nonetheless, half-time teaching assistants have full responsibility for teaching three classes (two in the fall and one in the spring) of about 25 Freshmen each, which meet three times per week, and for grading the eight or ten essays written by their students during the 16 week semester.
Teaching Assistantships in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures are selected by the heads of the individual language sections. Applications are accepted throughout the year. The GRE is required for all U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The TOEFL is required for all international applications whose native language is not English. All degree-seeking international students must have a minimum score of 550 on the written test for admission, or 213 on the computer-based test. Applicants who wish to apply for fellowships must generally submit their credentials by mid-January for admission in the fall semester. Consideration for assistantships is usually given to applicants who apply by March.
Comparative Literature graduate students who work as graduate teaching assistants in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures may apply for a limited number of opportunities to spend a semester abroad while retaining graduate assistantship support. While these semester abroad programs are designed primarily for graduate students in French, German, and Spanish, in the past it has been possible to arrange a similar program for graduate students in Italian.
The limit for T.A. support is two years for M.A. students and five years for Ph.D. candidates. In addition, if a student has completed the Ph.D. and is actively seeking a job, the Program will continue support for an additional year.