Financial Aid & Assistantships

The Graduate Program in Musicology offers a variety of financial aid packages for students. Most awards are tied to teaching assistantships, which allow students the opportunity to gain valuable classroom teaching experience while working toward their graduate degrees.

Graduate students entering the program with a bachelor’s degree normally assist faculty in large undergraduate lecture courses during their first year by grading essays and examinations. From the second year onward (or from the beginning of the first year for students entering the program with a master’s degree in hand), graduate students take on considerable responsibility for leading individual discussion sections (“recitations”) of 15-20 undergraduates in weekly meetings whose purpose is to reinforce the content of course lectures. More advanced graduate students sometimes assume full responsibility for undergraduate courses, particularly in summer school sessions.

Most departmental graduate awards run for a period of four years, although some university-wide awards extend to five; most cover tuition and health benefit fees as well. Beyond the fourth or fifth year, students are encouraged to explore the variety of available resources for funding, including overseas research grants, fellowships sponsored by organizations like the Fulbright Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the American Musicological Society, as well as the Graduate School’s own on- and off-campus dissertation awards.

Students past the period of funding of their award who have not yet completed the Ph.D. are usually considered for extended funding in the form of teaching fellowships and assistantships. Usually, students in good standing have been supported through seven years of study at UNC-CH.

The principal types of awards available to entering graduate students through the Music Department are:

• Fellowships: By nomination of the department in a university-wide competition.
  • Academic stipend: Up to $25,000.
  • Tuition: Provided. Tenure: Up to five years following matriculation.
• Merit Assistantships: By nomination of the department in a university-wide competition.
  • Academic stipend: Up to $22,000.
  • Tuition: Provided. Tenure: Up to four years.
• Teaching Fellowships and Assistantships: Awarded by the department, usually to continuing students.
  • Academic Stipend: Minimum of $20,000.
  • Tuition: Provided. Tenure: Up to four years.
• Graduate Research Assistantships: Awarded by the department.
  • Academic Stipend: Minimum of $22,000.
  • Tuition: Provided. Tenure: Up to four years.

Further information on Music Department fellowships is available from the Director of Graduate Admissions (for prospective students) and from the Director of Graduate Studies (for enrolled students).

Comprehensive information on other sources of financial aid and grants, both from within and beyond the University, is available through the Graduate School’s website. All applicants are strongly encouraged to take the initiative to apply for funding not only through the Graduate Program in Musicology, but also through available University, national, and international sources.

For more information about the Department of Music’s policy on Financial Aid, please see the Department’s Graduate Handbook, Appendix I: Financial Aid.

For information about North Carolina Residency for Tuition Purposes, please see http://gradschool.unc.edu/residency/index.html.

For information regarding Grant Source Library Funding, please visit the Funding Information Portal.