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Funding

sociology department

Ph.D. students receive tuition waivers and stipends for living expenses during the first five years of study, generally in exchange for service to the department.

M.A. students do not normally receive departmental funding. They are encouraged to contact Assistant Dean Carole Hughes (hughesc@bc.edu, 617-552-3480) for available positions at Graduate Student Life, and to check out the opportunities in the right column of the table below. The links that should be especially useful for finding positions on campus are the current listing of graduate assistantships and other job opportunities maintained by the Office of Graduate Student Life and the Boston College Human Resources job opportunity page.

Both M.A. and Ph.D. students can, of course, apply for external sources of funding. Links to Ph.D. sources of funding and links to external sources of funding are listed below.

Ph.D. Funding Sources External Funding Sources
For M.A. and Ph.D. students

Teaching Assistant/Teaching Fellow - 5 years
This is the most common funded position; the department accepts between 5 and 6 new grad students in this position per year. Students serve as TAs the first 3 years of the program and TFs the last 2 years.

Dissertation Fellowship - 1 year
Awarded at the discretion of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to advanced students recommended by the Sociology Faculty. Applications are solicited by the Graduate Director, usually around February.

Alper Award - 1 year
Endowment awarded by the Sociology faculty annually. Applications are solicited by the Graduate Director, usually around February.

Summer Research Fellowships - 1 summer
The sociology department offers a limited number of Summer Research Fellowships (SRFs) so that students can spend a summer focusing on research and writing.  Ph.D. students apply for SRFs in the spring, and can generally expect to receive one SRF during their tenure as a graduate student at BC

Lowry Fellowship - 1 year
Endowment awarded by the Sociology faculty annually. Applications are solicited by the Graduate Director, usually around February.

Graduate Research Expense Grants (GREG) - 1 year
Provided to offset the costs of research connected to second year M.A. papers and theses, dissertations, or planned professional conference papers and publications. Applications are solicited by the Graduate Director, usually around March.

Research Assistant Awards (RAA) - 1 summer
Sociology department offers matching funds to help provide Research Assistant support to faculty members who receive BC faculty Research Expense Grants (REG) or who have $2000 of their own research funds to support a graduate student. Sociology faculty members should apply to the department on behalf of students. If the matching funds are requested for REG, the faculty member should also submit a BC REG application to the Department Chair by the deadline determined by BC (usually some time in March).

The BC University Fellowships Committee maintains a site which helps students apply for prestigious external scholarship opportunities. Along with other services, the site provides a list of fellowships, their deadlines, and how to apply:


The Office of Sponsored Programs maintains a number of web pages to help students find funding:


The Office of Graduate Student Life maintains a page for student financial support, which also links to a non-BC page for student resources:


The Office of Student Services maintains three pages which provide financial information: