Funding

Assistantships

The Department of History and Art History offers teaching and research assistantships for qualified full-time doctoral students; the department is currrently unable to offer graduate assistantships to MA students.  All assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis.

  • Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs)—George Mason graduate students who participate directly in research or research support activities under faculty supervision for not more than 20 hours per week. The History Department has several Graduate Research and Technology Assistantships with the Center for History and New Media (CHNM). A computer background is an important asset for these assistantships. PhD students are eligible for up to seven credits of tuition waiver per semester.
  • Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs)—George Mason graduate students who participate directly in instructional activities under faculty supervision for not more than 20 hours per week. GTAs may not teach more than two lower-division lecture courses or six semester hours of recitation sections. History teaching assistants may help selected departmental faculty with grading and/or leading discussion sections in survey and upper-level courses. The student teaching assistant attends professor’s lectures, holds office hours, and leads discussions and tutoring sessions.

Persons applying for admissions to the PhD program at George Mason may indicate their interest in being considered for a graduate assistantship by checking the appropriate box on their Graduate Admissions Application.

Fellowships

The State of Virginia also has financial assistance for students who enter graduate school to prepare to teach at the college level. The Governor and the General Assembly allocate the funds for these fellowships to the State Council of Higher Education.

Three state-supported fellowships are available for U.S. citizens through the Stephen J. Wright Scholars Program: the Dean’s Graduate Award, the Commonwealth Graduate Award, and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Doctoral Scholars Award. Annual awards range from $5,000-$12,000 and are renewable with satisfactory academic progress. The university further assists students with tuition and fees. Each of these awards is intended to assist students who plan to teach at the university level. For deadline information and applications for these programs, contact the scholarship administrator in the Office of Student Financial Aid.

In addition to the above financial aid, the History Department also has a few competitive financial awards for students. These include: Charles and Polly Webber Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Josephine F. Pacheco Best Graduate Paper Prize, Evelyn Pugh Tuition Scholarship, George Mason Graduate School Fellowship, and the Finley Fellowship. Students are nominated by faculty members and awards are given on a yearly basis. 

Other Sources of Funding for Graduate Students

The Office of Graduate Academic Affairs of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences has an extensive list of potential sources of funding to support graduate students.

The university Office of Student Financial Aid has more information on funding sources including student loans or work-study positions.

Mason's Federal School Code:  003749