Funding for Graduate Studies
The Field is committed to funding every graduate student it admits into the graduate program. Funding packages are formally approved by the Graduate School and the College of Arts and Sciences based on their annual projected budgets, which means that each cohort's funding package (and size) can vary slightly. For legal purposes, the letter of admission, not this web page, constitutes the official "contract" between the prospective graduate student and Cornell.
That being said, we currently offer a five year funding package that covers tuition and provides a stipend for living expenses (including during the summer). In recent years, we have also been able to support students beyond their fifth year, usually through grant-funded graduate research assistantships.
All funding is contingent on the student making satisfactory progress in the program, as assessed by all faculty in the Field.
Fellowships
Internal fellowships
The most common form of funding is the Cornell University Fellowship, known as the SAGE fellowship. The fellowships cover tuition and provide a stipend for living expenses. In the first year and the "dissertation year," students are not expected to work as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, or Graduate Research Assistant. During the other three years, the student is required to work as a TA, RA, or GRA.
Special fellowships are also available from the Graduate School for qualified applicants from under-represented minority groups. These require a supplemental application essay, submitted at the same time as the other application materials.
External fellowships
Many of our students have been successful in national competitions for external graduate fellowships sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Jacob Javits Foundation, and others. The Graduate School maintains a fellowship database to help students find fellowships for which they are qualified. The Director of Graduate Studies and other faculty members can also help graduate students find outside and intramural financial support.
The University also offers federally supported fellowships in Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and European Studies. Students can combine work in sociology with language area studies. Application for support should be made to the director of the relevant language area program at Cornell.
Many of these external fellowships are intended for students who are citizens or nationals of the United States. Applicants from foreign countries should seek aid from their own governments or universities or from a U.S. agency operating abroad, such as the Institute for International Education or the Fulbright-Hays Program. The advising center at the applicant's undergraduate school may assist in the search for funding of graduate study.
Under certain conditions, external funds can be used to extend the package of guaranteed support from the Field or used in place of the teaching assistantship or research apprenticeship to allow the recipient to focus on research. The Graduate School and Field policies on modifying the initial package are available from the Director of Graduate Studies. Currently, students who are awarded these fellowships receive the two "free" years of SAGE funding (i.e., the first year and the dissertation year), but not the University-funded RA or TA stipends in the years that are covered by the external fellowship.
Dissertation support
Even though the SAGE fellowships provide one year of dissertation support, students are strongly encouraged to obtain external financial support that can be used to pay research expenses, conduct field research for the dissertation, or provide additional support for the dissertation research. Many of our students have, for example, received NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants or international travel grants from the Einaudi Center to support their doctoral research. Information about other sources of support can be found in the Graduate School's fellowship database and from the DGS.
Other sources of funding
In addition to the tuition and stipend package, graduate students often receive additional funding to support their pre-dissertation research efforts. The Department has, in recent years, been able to offer incoming students a small research account to support their pre-dissertation research expenses. Many of our students have also received "seed grants" from the Center for the Study of Inequality and Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center to conduct inequality related research, broadly defined. The Center for the Study of Economy and Society also occasionally funds students' projects. Travel grants are available from the Graduate School for students who are presenting their solo- or co-authored research at national or international conferences. Other pots of money are available around campus for those with the initiative to go after them!
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