Most students in the program receive funding support from a variety of sources over the course of their graduate training. Funding sources include: department-assigned assistantships, lecturing positions (for advanced students), faculty-assigned research assistantships, assistantships with other departments on campus, and many other possibilities.
New Students
We do our best to try to offer as many funded slots for incoming students as possible. These are awarded based on a committee review that begins in January. We also nominate incoming students for a variety of internal fellowships from the University, including Aviles-Johnson Fellowship, Merit Fellowships, Lechner Scholarship, etc. For candidates with prestigious external funding we try to get supplements through TAMU Great Program. Funded students have generally either 4-year (accepted with recent Sociology Master’s degree) or 5-year (accepted with Bachelor’s degree) funding promise.
With departmental funding and with most of the fellowships, students are usually employed as Teaching Assistants (most common among first-and second year cohorts), Instructors (more common among more advanced students), or Research Assistants (availability depends on current projects in the department).
Continuing Students
Continuing students can apply for department-assigned assistantships that are awarded annually on the basis of committee review. In addition, they may seek other funded positions that offer opportunities for research and teaching experience. While there is no centralized review process for these other positions, there are many more of these positions than there are department-assigned assistantships. Thus, about two-thirds of our continuing students are supported through such positions.
Financial Aid
For more information, please visit the Texas A&M Financial Aid page.