Costs

Financial Aid / Tuition and Fees / Cost of Living

Every prospective graduate student must weigh a set of complex, and often highly personal, concerns about finances. To be perfectly frank, directors of graduate programs have conflicted agendas. On the one hand, we want to recruit the best possible graduate students. Therefore, recruiters are in the business of painting rosey portraits. On the other hand, our larger goal is to have cohorts of happy and successful graduate students. With that in mind, we want to give you the best possible information so that you can make an informed decision. This page attempts to do just that.

Financial Aid: Fellowships, Assistantships, and Loans

First, a quick tutorial. Graduate students pay for their schooling through some combination of four sources: fellowships, assistantships, loans, and outside employment.

Fellowships are essentially grants paid to students with no work obligation attached. Some fellowships come from a particular department, some are from university-wide sources, some come from national or international sources.
Assistantships are the most common form of graduate funding. Students on an assistantship balance their academic studies with some sort of part-time employment (teaching assistant, grader, research assistant etc) in the department.
Loans can of course take many forms, including federally subsidized loans through the institution.
Many graduate students also work part-time while pursuing their studies.

Students who are considering financial offers from different institutions should ask about the length of appointments and the work expectations as well as the levels of annual assistance.

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The History Department offers incoming doctoral students a wide range of financial packages. Nearly all funded students are guaranteed continued support for four years, assuming that they maintain good grades and continue to make progress towards their degree. In 2006-2007 our incoming students received offers ranging from $9,000 to $16,000. The recipients of Alumni Fellowships – the University’s most coveted graduate fellowship – are on full fellowship (with no work obligations) for three of their four years; in their 3rd year they serve as teaching assistants or graders.

All students on assistantships or fellowships receive full tuition waivers although they still must pay student fees (discussed below). Starting in January 2007 the University of Florida has added a major new benefit. All graduate students on assistantships will receive full health insurance coverage. For a summary of this new program see, Human Resources.

Students on assistantships are assigned to one of four types of positions. Graders assist in the grading of classes of roughly 63 students. Teaching Assistants are assigned three discussion sections, of roughly 19 students each. They prepare and lead the discussions and grade their students under the supervision of the lead instructor. Teaching Asssociates are senior graduate students who teach their own courses, mentored by a member of the faculty. A few students each year serve as Research Assistants for individual faculty members.

Although our assistantships and fellowships are only guaranteed for four years, the Department makes every effort to fund advanced students beyond that point as they are finishing their degrees. In recent years we have almost always been able to offer fifth year students positions as Teaching Assistants or Teaching Associates. In fact, in 2006-2007 we have been able to offer positions to several advanced students who are beyond their sixth year in the program.

Unfortunately, at the present time we are unable to offer any departmental assistance to students in our terminal MA program.

All graduate students are also eligible for a variety of loan programs. For further information see, Financial Aid.

How Much Will It Cost?

At the University of Florida graduate students pay tuition and fees per credit hour. In the fall and spring semesters the normal full-time load is 9 credit hours for students on assistantships and 12 credit hours for students on fellowships. Of course MA students or part-time students can opt to take fewer credits.

In 2006-2007 the tuition and fees for an in-state student are $284.44 for credit hour. For out of state students that figure is $914.63.

Students who are on assistantships or fellowships are granted a tuition waver for their 9 or 12 credit hours but they must pay their student fees. The current students fees are $41.63 per credit hour.

For more information on tuition and fees, including directions on how to calculate various configurations, see Financial Aid.

How Much Does It Cost to Live in Gainesville?

When prospective graduate students are comparing the University of Florida with other institutions we always hope that they will take the cost of living into consideration.

The Office of Admissions has put together a table estimating the cost of living for UF graduate students. [Note that this table includes the cost of health insurance and tuition, both of which are covered in assistantships.]

We thought it would be fun to compare Gainesville to other towns and cities with major research universities. So we turned to a website called “The Salary Calculator” that is supposed to help folks decide if they should relocate:

Here is how it works. According to this website, if you are living in city X on $20,000 a year (as a renter), this is what it would cost to match that standard of living in Gainesville:

Miami, FL $18,000
Los Angeles, CA $18,587
Berkeley, CA $ 2,237 (!!!!)
Chicago, IL $14,407
Boston, MA $14,583
Manhattan, NY $13,692
Washington, DC $14,043
Charlottesville, VA $16,487
Madison, WI $17,323
Austin, TX $18,821

For more information on the cost of living in Gainesville check out Gainesville Apartment & Condominium Gudie and the Dean of Students Office.