UW-Madison Department of Kinesiology - Financial Support

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KINESIOLOGY
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CONTACTING US

Main Office

Kinesiology
School of Education
UW-Madison
Unit II Gym
 2000 Observatory Dr.
Madison, WI  53706-1121

Tel: 608/262-0259
 Fax: 608/262-1656
Email: kines@education.wisc.edu
or by contact form
 

Financial Support for Graduate Students

Cost of study

Information about graduate tuition fees and other costs can be found at the UW-Madison Graduate School website.

Financial support

The department tries to financially support as many graduate students as it can. Financial support generally comes in 3 forms:

  • Departmental Assistantships (Teaching Assistants/Project Assistants)
  • Grant-supported Research Assistantships
  • Departmental or University Scholarships and Fellowships.

Students will often receive support from a mix of these 3 mechanisms at various stages throughout their graduate career. 

  1. Departmental Teaching Assistantships and Project Assistantships.  TAs, PAs, and RAs are considered employees (usually less than full-time), and they are paid for their services, although generally they work in areas associated with their studies, so their paid work also promotes their studies. The number of assistantships varies with available funding ("full-time equivalents") and the way funds are allocated to individual positions (percentage of appointment). A prospective advisor (major professor) assesses the applicant's compatibility with that professor's research, the courses in that professor's specialization (and corresponding TAs needed), the institutional funding available for research, the grants or other extra-institutional funding sources to support program or research assistants, and any available non-research assistantship positions. Assistantships not directly related to specialization research might include, e.g. the Physical Education Activity Program, whose instructors are often full-time students with experience, interest, or training in the particular activity.
  2. Grant-Supported Research Assistantships.  Individual faculty often have extramural support for their research programs. Specific funding for project assistants (PAs) and research assistants (RAs) varies by program and current funding levels. Students are encouraged to speak directly to their prospective advisors regarding available funding.
  3. Institutional Scholarships or Fellowships. The Department of Kinesiology offers a number of scholarships and fellowships to support graduate students. Information about individual departmental scholarships and an application are available online.

 

In addition there are university-wide scholarships and fellowships for which Kinesiology graduate students are eligible to apply.  Information about these can be found at the UW Grad School's funding resources webpage

Applications for University competitions are generally due in January or February. Graduate students who have been accepted into a program are eligible to compete for scholarship/fellowship awards for their first year of graduate study (as well as for subsequent years). Some fellowships are university-wide, and others are department-specific (see links above). Some awards, particularly fellowships with tuition remission, aim at fully supporting the recipient (for the award duration, usually one year). In general, there are more applicants than awards.

The professor(s) in your area(s) of specialization might be willing to offer predictions of potential funding. It can be very difficult, though, to predict what mixture of personal funds, institutional support, or grants would be available to an individual applicant. Availability of institutional support is affected by many factors, including the Wisconsin state budget and professors' success with locating new grants or extending existing ones. Financial support is largely a matter for decision by faculty, especially the prospective advisor, during the application review. You are welcome and encouraged to contact professors, probably by e-mail at first, to discuss your compatibility with their research programs or funding opportunities they envision, if any. There is no certainty that any institutional funding support will be available for a graduate student, although your prospective advisor may try to provide reasonably predictable financial support for as much of your graduate career as feasible. All the circumstances must be reviewed individually for each applicant. Institutional support is considered, of course, only for individuals who qualify to be admitted as graduate students.

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