Financial Support for Graduate Students

Prospective graduate students may apply for scholarship aid (tuition remission) and fellowships that carry stipends, both available on a competitive basis through the Washington University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Fellowships and teaching assistantships for doctoral students in 2008-09 carries a stipend of $17,940. Fellowships and assistantships are frequently awarded to Master's students as well. The department has a limited number of prestigious fellowships opportunities for new doctoral students, available on a competitive basis (see below).

In addition to financial aid available through the Graduate School, the Department of Music has endowed scholarship funds that are used to assist graduate students with a variety of incidental expenses, such as travel to scholarly meetings, and research expenses. Travel allowances permit students to attend AMS, SMT, and SEM conferences each year during their studies. Scholarships for private applied music instruction are available to all graduate students, and the Nussbaum Traveling Fellowship permits selected graduate students to travel in the U.S. or abroad to pursue dissertation research.

The Department of Music offers a limited number of special fellowships for qualified students entering the Ph.D. programs in musicology and music theory. All applicants to the doctoral programs are automatically considered for this fellowship. After the first year, students will have the opportunity to work as teaching assistants, for which they will receive compensation comparable to the basic fellowship stipend. (Students normally begin an assistantship in their second year of study.)

Advanced doctoral students in music often become Senior Teaching Fellows, allowing them the opportunity to assume responsibility for teaching an introductory music course in history or theory. The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences currently supports doctoral students for at least six years, assuming satisfactory progress toward completion of the degree. For further information, read the Chronicle of Higher Education's Report on the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences .