The Department of Geography strives to support every student admitted to the program, within the constraints of available resources. Support typically includes some work as a teaching assistant or research assistant and some fellowship stipend to allow students time for their own work.
Students with the most successful academic records are nominated for, and generally receive, multi-year university fellowships of stipends plus tuition for two years. Combined with department support in the form of teaching or research assistantships and stipends for two more years, these provide four years of support, with a fifth year of stipend for advancing to candidacy within normative time. You can read more about other type’s of fellowships and support on the Graduate Division Fellowships page.
Other students are typically offered at least one semester of teaching assistantship and one semester of full or partial stipend for the first three years, with a fourth year of stipend for advancing to candidacy within normative time.
In later years, the department and dissertation advisors support students in applying for any national grants for which they are eligible. Over the last ten years, our students have been awarded an average of around $100,000 a year in extramural funding. In addition, we have enough teaching assistantships for advanced students to bridge gaps in fellowship support.
STUDENT PARENTS
If you have children, you are eligible for various forms of aid from the Graduate Division – above and beyond any Department support.
One of the most important is a “Parent Grant” which provides up to $8,000 of additional stipend per academic year for child support. There is also subsidized Family Student Housing and Day Care. For more information and deadlines see the Financial Support for Student Parents page.
Other Graduate Division resources, including Childbirth Accommodation Funding, are found in the Families Matter’s Resource Guide.
(DS421) NSF RESEARCH TRAINING PROGRAM
DS421 is an two-year interdisciplinary graduate training program with the mission to prepare a new generation of researchers and policy makers to address challenges at the intersection of natural, social and data sciences by translating data into evidence-based analysis of impacts and solutions. The DS421 program is open to incoming and first year PhD students from all departments and schools at UC Berkeley.
The program seeks a diverse cohort of students with a desire to pursue interdisciplinary research addressing coupled human-natural systems with a strong quantitative, data science component. Applicants should have a background in one or more of the following areas: natural or environmental science, social science, public policy, landscape architecture, environmental planning, statistics, computer science, or related fields.