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Understanding Graduate Funding
Graduate Funding Information
Graduate funding mostly comes in the form of assistantships and fellowships. The Sociology Department guarantees 6 years of support, including support over 5 summers, to all graduate students making satisfactory academic progress. While everyone's funding situation will be different, current practice is to provide funding as fellowship for the first and fifth years, and also during the five covered summers. For the second, third, fourth, and sixth years, the department typically provides funding as assistantships. This practice is subject to change.
Assistantships
Graduate Student Assistantships are a form of student employment, earning a compensation package including both salary and tuition allowance (TAL) for the performance of research or teaching services to the University as part of the student's academic and professional training and development.
Full-time assistantships (e.g. a 50% research assistantship or a 50% teaching assistantship) correspond to 20 hours of work per week during the 12-week quarter, and salaries are paid twice a month, according to Stanford's payroll schedule, which is linked below. In summer quarter, students may hold assistantship appointments up to 90% (36 hours per week). You will receive a funding letter at the beginning of each quarter detailing your assistantship including your pay schedule. If you do not receive payment according to what your funding letter states, please contact the Student Services Manager.
Salary and tuition allowance tables
Payroll schedules and deadlines
Fellowships
Fellowships, typically including a full or partial tuition payment and a stipend for living expenses, are awarded as a form of financial support to a student. They are not provided in exchange for services provided by the student. They may be awarded by Stanford University, or any of its departments, or by external sources, on the basis of merit or need.
Fellowships are typically paid out as a lump sum per quarter, within the first few weeks of the quarter. The default for disbursement of stipends is “standard charges,” i.e., after other university charges, such as room and board, have been deducted, the remaining fellowship stipend is paid as a refund check to the student. You will receive a funding letter at the beginning of each quarter detailing your fellowship including your pay schedule. If you do not receive payment according to what your funding letter states, please contact the Student Services Manager. See the links below for more information on fellowships.
Hourly work
Stanford University uses student hourly employment to hire Stanford students into jobs that are specifically earmarked for matriculated students. Student workers are supervised in their work and must record and approve their work hours. Compensation is established on an hourly basis, and the amount of pay is based on the actual number of hours worked in each pay period.
These job assignments are incidental to the student’s course of study with reasonable limitations placed during the academic quarter on the nature of the work assignment and the number of hours of employment.
The Sociology Department sets the graduate student hourly rate in accordance with the type of work being performed. The standard hourly rate is reviewed each year to ensure compensation adheres to the appropriate minimum range set by the University.
Graduate students that have assistantship or fellowship support may be eligible to take on paid hourly work as follows:
- A student receiving a 50% assistantship may be paid for up to 8 hours of additional hourly work (international students on visas are not eligible for additional employment)
- A student receiving a full fellowship may be appointed to a concurrent 25% assistantship OR hired hourly for up to 8 hours per week
- If the student is receiving less than a 50% assistantship or less than a full fellowship, consult with the Director of Finance and Operations for further guidance on what the student may be eligible for
Hourly work may take the form of course support, such as a Reader/Grader, Course Assistant, or Teaching Assistant. It may also take the form of research support, such as a Research Assistant. Or, it may take the form of other hourly work, such as administration, organizing and planning work, tutoring, peer advising, etc.. Please note that a Course Assistant, Teaching Assistant, or Research Assistant, being work that falls under the category of research and teaching, are subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and must be paid at the negotiated rate. Other hourly work such as Reader/Grader or miscellaneous administrative work may be paid at the rate set by the hiring unit.
Taxes
Students do not have to pay taxes on funds from their scholarship, fellowship, or other grant that are used to pay for tuition and any fees, books, supplies, and equipment required for their courses. These are referred to as qualified educational expenses. The Cardinal Care subsidy is also not taxable as Stanford considers the health insurance charge to be a required fee.
Students do have to pay taxes on amounts disbursed or paid to them for stipends and assistantships, on funds used for incidental expenses, such as room and board, travel, and non-required equipment. These are referred to as non-qualified expenses.
Students may receive certain tax related forms, such as a W-2 income statement and the 1098-T Form. Please refer to this page to identify which tax related forms you may need when filing your taxes. The 1098-T Form is used to help determine a student’s eligibility to claim an education tax credit and is provided to students who are US citizens and permanent residents in degree-seeking programs. For more information on the 1098-T Form, including how to access it, please click here.
Everyone's tax liabilities are different, and it is against University policy for Stanford staff to provide individual tax advice. However, the University does provide some resources to help you navigate your taxes. See the links below for more information.
Graduate Taxes 101 (helpful videos for both domestic and international students)
Specific Tax Help and Tax Exemption information for International Students
5 Simple Ways to Manage Your Graduate Funding
Posting positions
Positions, both assistantships and hourly work, must be posted in Handshake when those positions are open to people outside of the department. Assistantships or hourly work that are assigned to doctoral students within the department as part of their funding packages will not be posted.
Enrolling in units in place of assistantship
Students may enroll in Directed Research or Teaching Apprenticeship units under the supervision of a Sociology faculty member, in place of a paid assistantship. Directed Research and Teaching Apprenticeship units offer students the opportunity to conduct original research or gain teaching experience, under the supervision of a Sociology faculty member.
This option may be particularly useful for students who have a concurrent paid assistantship, an international student on a visa who is not eligible for additional employment, or in a case where the PI doesn't have funding to support an assistantship.
Mentored teaching experiences
In the circumstance where a graduate degree program requires its students to have teaching experience as part of their academic and professional training, and where that student is simultaneously funded at a level that meets or exceeds the defined assistantship minimum by another appropriate source of funding, the student may be engaged in a mentored teaching experience without appointment to a TA position. This policy also applies to graduate students supported on funding that meets the criteria above and for whom the faculty advisor or degree program strongly recommend a teaching experience as part of the student’s academic and professional training.
In providing mentored teaching experiences, degree programs should ensure that the same treatment is applied to all students in the program (regardless of work location) who are undertaking similar teaching assignments.
Some sources of external fellowship funding have defined restrictions on what the recipient of their support may do by way of additional employment or service to the university. In all cases, any student receiving external funding must comply with the requirements of the source of that funding.
This option may be particularly useful for students when a funded assistantship is not an option and the student does not wish to or cannot enroll in Directed Research or Teaching Apprenticeship units, but they still need to fulfill their teaching requirement for graduation.
Resources to understand your university bill
Graduate Academic Policies and Procedures
The Graduate Academic Policies and Procedures Handbook is a compilation of university policies and other information related to the academic standing and financial support of Stanford graduate students (including non-degree-seeking students). Graduate students should refer to the GAP Handbook for the most updated information around graduate financial support, including types of funding such as fellowships, assistantships, and hourly work.