Diversify your research funding! Here’s how.

With federal budgets getting tighter and the future uncertain, having a strategy for diversifying your funding portfolio is key to success. Gone are the days where an academic researcher might have a career fully funded by a single organization. Not only is it good for your bottom line, but diversifying your funding sources can also be good for creativity: some foundations or non-governmental organizations have different parameters and flexibility about what kinds of projects they fund.

In December 2017, we heard from two highly successful UW faculty, Drs. Chet Moritz from the Departments of Rehabilitation Medicine, Physiology & Biophysics and Dan Ratner from Bioengineering, who shared their strategies for success with diverse funding sources. We share a few of their tips and insights here so you can try a few yourself:

Federal funding is diverse. Many UW faculty and postdocs have experience with NIH and NSF. But experience shows it can pay off to look beyond these traditional sources that are more competitive. For example, the Departments of Defense and Energy fund a significant amount of innovative research. Get creative about how your science can fit within other priorities and desired applications. Add a collaborator with relevant expertise, pivot to a new application, and find an informant with experience who can help you navigate the new language and formats of the applications.
Take your work to the next level. The NIH and NSF invest in basic science and innovative discovery. If you are interested in bringing your innovations to implementation, dissemination, translation, or commercialization, you often need to look elsewhere for funding support. Fortunately, many foundations are highly motivated to bring discoveries to impact, and other entities such as the State are interested in implementation and commercialization. Search the state budget for line items dedicated to specific problems lawmakers are motivated to solve. Search the Foundation Directory to find a match for your research area and a foundation who values and invests in those areas.
Don’t shy away from smaller grants. Do you need funds to kick-off new ideas? Small grants can help you get preliminary data or demonstrate a proof of concept. Smaller grants can help you build a relationship with a funder (governmental or private sector). At UW, postdocs have access to the Amazon Catalyst awards. Junior investigators can have an edge. Institutions and funding organizations want to invest in young, exciting researchers.
Build a relationship and grow your connections. Once you get your foot in the door, build a relationship with the funder. Success breeds success, no matter how small. Celebrate and make visible what you’ve accomplished and who made it possible, whether the funder, the institution, the state, Congress, etc. Know your audience (your funder) and dedicate some time to a feedback loop that will grow and sustain your relationship.

Finally, grant writing inevitably involves disappointment. It can take seven submissions to get to one successfully funded project. Pay attention to reviewer feedback, do your best to match your idea and proposal to the funder’s priorities and formats, and develop resilience and persistence. It will pay off! We know you can do it, and we are right there working at this alongside you. Funding your research is a lifelong endeavor and the landscape is always changing; your ability to be responsive and pivot when needed is key.

Additional references:

Federal Business Opportunities, to search for open calls for contractors to solve specific problems with governmental agencies.
Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs) are included in grants.gov and provide more diverse federal funding opportunities.
Foundation Center Directory, to search for in-depth beta on specific foundation funding. Note that to get access to more detailed information, you have to access via a dedicated Foundation Center site either at UW Tacoma Libraries or the Seattle Public Library (Central).
Diversifying Portfolios: With funding tight at NIH, what are the alternatives?
Diversifying Your Portfolio: Non-NIH Sources of Funding

Meet the Winners of the Grad School’s Distinguished Thesis Award

Matthew Coates, Kate O'Neill. Jan Wittenbecher The Graduate School recognizes exceptional scholarship and research at the master’s and doctoral levels. These awards recognize a thesis and a dissertation in four categories: Biological Sciences, Humanities & Fine Arts, Mathematics, Physical Sciences & Engineering, and the Social Sciences. Meet the winners of this year’s Distinguished Thesis Award (awarded in three of the four categories).

[expand title = “Biological Sciences: Matthew Coates, master’s in public health in Global Health Metrics and Evaluation ’17, Department of Global Health”]

Matthew Coates, Biological Sciences

Thesis: Quantifying Selection Bias from Birth History Estimates of Child Mortality

Please summarize your thesis in lay-person’s terms: We underestimate how many children die in countries without good health data because we can’t ask deceased mothers if their children have died.

Post-thesis life: research associate, Harvard Medical School

What sparked your interest in this topic?

I was working at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at UW on estimating mortality rates around the world. A newer colleague asked me a question about a gap in the way child mortality rates are estimated, so I started looking into different approaches that the field had used to determine whether or not the data gap led to consequential differences in results.

You earned your master’s degree in Summer 2016. What are you working on now?

I earned my Master’s degree in August 2016. I started working as a Research Associate with the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change (PGNDSC) at Harvard Medical School in the fall of 2016. The PGNDSC houses the Secretariat for the Lancet Commission on Reframing Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries for the Poorest Billion (Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission, http://www.ncdipoverty.org/). I support the Commission’s efforts by doing quantitative research relating to the burden of disease and intervention strategies for the poorest groups in low- and middle-income countries.

What do you see as the potential public impact of your research?

Child mortality is a key measure used to track progress in global health and development. Many methods used to estimate child mortality depend on mothers answering surveys about their children. Estimates are likely too low in populations with a high proportion of children who are orphans and in which the gap in survival between orphans and non-orphans is large because their mothers cannot be surveyed. Others have done work to account for this limitation in data and methods in populations affected by the HIV epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa, and my thesis work tries to account for this limitation in the data by using another source of survival information (sibling questionnaires) from the same surveys. More research could be done to validate the approach I took. My hope would be that more can be done to assess the degree to which this challenge in estimating child mortality impacts estimates in other populations that could be affected (for example, in post-conflict settings).[/expand]

[expand title = “Social Sciences: Kate O’Neill, PhD student, Sociology”]

Thesis: “The Adolescent Empathy Paradox and Juvenile Offending: Why Sex Differences in Empathic Ability Can Explain the Gender Gap in Juvenile Offending Behavior”

Thesis, loled: Being a teenager is the worst and boys adapt by being jerks.

Post-thesis life: PhD student, Sociology

How did you become interested in this topic?

Prior to graduate school I spent several years teaching an anger management class to men convicted of domestic violence and working with recently released violent and serious offenders. We did a lot of work on empathy building, but when I went to the literature to find out why I was surprised by how little there actually is on the topic. Furthermore, almost none of the literature I encountered discussed gender differences in empathy and offending in tandem. I saw an opportunity to fill a gap in existing literature and was lucky enough to have the data to do so.

What do you see as the potential public impact of your research?

In addition to further supporting empathy-enhancement rehabilitation programs (like anger management), I hope this research illustrates the danger of reifying gender roles. Specifically, when we reinforce the association between femininity and empathy we are blocking boys from accessing an emotional management and/or communication tool that deters crime.

What’s next for you? Are you building on the same research for your dissertation, or moving in a different direction?

For my PhD, I hope to explore how sex-segregated peer groups in adolescence predict crime across the life course. In layman’s terms, I want to know if having opposite sex friends when you’re a kid helps transmit norms and values that deter crime more so than exclusively having friends of the same sex. From my perspective, this is an extension of my MA work as I ultimately want to speak to gender differences in emotional development and their consequences for offending trajectories across people’s lives.

[/expand]

[expand title = “Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering: Jan Wittenbecher, master’s in mechanical engineering, ’17, Department of Mechanical Engineering/MSME “]

Jan Wittenbecher

Thesis: Contributions to the Analysis and Design of Mechanical Systems for a Series Hybrid Chevrolet Camaro

Thesis, loled: Hybrid muscle cars would be great if anybody bought such a thing.

Post-thesis life: Emissions certification engineer, General Motors

What sparked your interest in this topic?

The desire to win the EcoCAR 3 competition – an automotive engineering competition sponsored by the Department of Energy and General Motors – and to prove the feasibility of a hybrid muscle car.

Describe the process of the EcoCAR 3 competition.

I was part of a UW team with more than 50 members, competing against 15 other schools. The goal of the four-year competition (2014-2018) is to convert a 2016 Camaro into a series hybrid and add other innovative technologies. This required removing the entire original powertrain (engine, transmission, etc.) and replacing it with a team developed architecture: a very challenging effort for a team of students doing this in their spare time. We had to develop our own mechanical, electrical and software components, source additional ones from suppliers and integrate everything to a working system.

How did your experience writing a thesis impact your career and your position now at GM?

EcoCAR was basically the platform for my thesis work. I wrote about the deep dive I did in three specific areas of mechanical design and analysis for the car (suspension design, engine efficiency analysis and gearbox component design). Writing this thesis had a great impact on my career in two different ways: I learned a lot about automotive technology and regulations which helps me at my job with GM as an emissions certification engineer. It also gave me a lot of exposure to the team’s GM mentor which ultimately lead to me getting a job offer from GM.

[/expand]

Seven Strategies for Negotiating Salary

At a GO–MAP Power Hour, a group of women of color discussed salary negotiation strategies. Here are seven key takeaways from their conversation:

1. Confidence is key

Believe in your abilities and strengths. Don’t sell yourself short.

2. Do your research

Use Glassdoor to figure out the salary ranges for the organization and position. If the organization is a non-profit, this information will be available on their 990 forms (tax returns). Don’t be afraid to ask for a salary range at the end of your first interview, so you have a ballpark going in. And research doesn’t need to be web-based – use your friends and networks to gather information about salaries at companies and industries that interest you.

3. It’s about more than salary

Look at your entire benefits package, not just your salary, when considering an offer. Use a list or spreadsheet to track the many facets of the offer. This can help facilitate comparisons between offers and aid in negotiations, especially for academic jobs where an offer will include line items for research, summer salary and the like. Not sure what a package might include? Here are some other important benefits and perks to consider:

Medical insurance, including dental. Pay attention to premiums and out-of-pocket caps.
Short and long-term disability
Life insurance
Vacation allotment
Maternity leave
Sick leave
Stipends for medical expenses
Transportation benefits

4. When asked how much you’re looking for…

You may want to give a range, which can help with negotiations later on (it can also be considered a risk, others said). If you give a range, the bottom of the range should be the minimum you would accept to feel comfortable at that job. The top of the range should be no more than 20% of the average salary of that position in the city. For example, if the average salary is $45,000, the top of your range should be $54,000.

5. Plan ahead

Don’t just negotiate for how much you need to survive — picture yourself thriving. How much will you need to earn if you want to start investing, or saving toward a major purchase?

6. Negotiate differently

Say the salary at the job you really want is too low, but totally fixed. Consider asking to work fewer hours — say, 32 instead of 40 per week — for the same amount of pay. Then use those eight free hours to start a side-hustle!

7. Continue the conversation

Organize a group of friends and peers to share tips and strategies for negotiating salaries and other resources on professional development.

Funding options outside your department’s TA/RA-ships

Why are most RA/TA positions open to Masters AND PhD students? Unless you’re an exceptional Masters student, it’s almost impossible to compete against PhD students for positions that are open to both, as PhD students usually have more experience/education. Why not have RA/TA positions that are only for Masters students so they can reduce the amount of student loans they have to take out and increase their experience/desirability for future employers? Masters students typically receive less funding (other than loans) than PhD students since, at least in the School of Public Health, PhD students are usually part of a research team for their dissertation. –Anonymous

December 2018: This response has been edited slightly to reflect changes in UW’s job boards and to provide more widely applicable advice.

This week’s answer is courtesy of Helene Obradovich, director, UW Graduate School Office of Fellowships and Awards

Individual academic programs determine which of their students are prioritized for funding, and what type/duration of funding. In some academic programs on campus, all Ph.D. students get guarantees of funding, but master’s students may not get any kind of commitment with admission. Other academic programs may guarantee funding to a portion of their PhD students and a portion of their master’s students. Many of these decisions rest on the amount of available funding that the department has, whether they offer coursework that requires the assistance of TAs, how much grant funding faculty have, etc. The vast number of different graduate programs in disciplines that span the academic spectrum means that departments, schools and colleges all have a different focus in their graduate student funding opportunities.

What you also seem to be asking, though, is “how do I find funding if my own department doesn’t provide opportunities for RAs or TAs?” In that case, we highly recommend that you do several different things:

Because hiring decisions are made by individual units on campus, inquire with other units to see if they hire students from outside of their department for TA or RA positions. For instance, if your undergraduate major happened to be in Biology, you might contact that department to see if they ever hire TAs from outside their own student population. If you have knowledge of a language, you could do the same with a unit that offers that language instruction on campus.
Occasionally there are administrative units that hire graduate students into SA (staff assistant) or RA positions. Centers, libraries, and other departments that don’t have a ready supply of their own graduate students will advertise those positions to the general campus population. Resources to help you in this search include the UW Jobs website (look under the “academic student employee” category), the Graduate Funding Information Services blog (GFIS, in the Library), and Handshake through the Career & Internship Center. There’s not a particular time of year that all departments are hiring ASEs, so it’s something you should to check on regularly.
I highly encourage you to check with GFIS. Not only is their blog really helpful for funding opportunities of all kinds ( you should definitely subscribe!), GFIS also helps graduate students search various funding databases for opportunities that suit their background.
Lastly, do not underestimate the power of networking. Make it known to the faculty who teach your classes that you’re interested in TA and RA opportunities. Talk to other master’s students who appear to have landed TA and RA positions and find out how they landed them. Don’t limit yourself to speaking only with people in your department!

Finally, share your concerns with your department administration and even possibly your school/college administration. While in almost all cases they are dealing with prioritizing a finite amount of available funding, they should absolutely be aware of how their decisions are affecting their students on an ongoing basis.

Ask the Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guide doesn’t know the answer, the guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Dread and Taxes

This Guide post has been updated from a previous inquiry. Happy filing!

Filing taxes seems more complicated than it should be, and there seems to be no help from the university, despite the fact that many graduate students have very similar tax situations. What’s the best way to file to maximize our return (where do we put student fees and union dues and all of the other things that we can claim to reduce our tax liability)? Are there good tax help resources available? —Anonymous

Why are taxes so complicated? Albert Einstein once said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Anyway, yes, the UW does provide tax help! Student Fiscal Services is holding student tax workshops specifically for graduate students Wednesday, March 19, 2:30—3:30 p.m. and Thursday, April 4, 1:30–2:30 p.m. Additional workshops will be offered for U.S. Residents and Non-US Residents. All workshops are held at UW Seattle, Odegaard 220. Also, the Seattle Public Library offers one-on-one tax help at various branches. United Way offers help at a few additional sites, including at the UW in partnership with students in the MS Tax Program. No appointment necessary: drop by Mackenzie Hall Mondays and Wednesdays from 4–7 p.m. or Fridays noon–3 p.m.. to receive free help from United Way. (You must have made less than $66,000 in 2018 to be eligible for their free help. Probably not a problem for grad students?) Good luck!

“Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.” —Gerald Barzan, humorist

Ask Your Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guide doesn’t know the answer, the guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Talking with Faculty About Diverse Careers

Spring quarter is full for everyone, and we also know that many of you are in different stages of reflecting on your career goals. You may be thinking about what you want to do upon degree completion, starting an internship, preparing application materials, or deepening your expertise in a job you already have. Throughout this process, some of you have asked: “How do I initiate a conversation my faculty advisor(s) about my professional goals?”

Do your research. It can be anxiety-provoking to think about approaching your faculty advisor or mentor about your career interests, especially if those interests diverge from you becoming research faculty at a college or university. One of the best ways to initiate a conversation with your advisor is to be prepared beforehand. Here are some tips to help you gather the baseline information you need for that conversation: Assess your work-related interests, strengths, and values to develop a more holistic awareness of who you are as a professional. Utilize the UW Career Center’s comprehensive guide on building resumes and cvs, career advice, interviewing, and job searching. Understand how the skills you are developing in graduate school are indeed transferable across fields and industries. Peruse job postings (and volunteer opportunities) that resonate with your self-assessments, whether they are based in non-profit, industry, or government sectors. Research professional associations affiliated with the fields you are interested in, and contact their members via their websites or LinkedIn. Set up informational interviews with individuals from professional associations, or with employees from companies and organizations that you can imagine yourself working at–to grow your networks.

Get in the habit of career planning over time. The strategies noted above are part of a larger process of intentional career planning. This is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. Intentional career planning is necessary, if you want to move forward in both knowing and reaching your professional goals. Break your goals up into smaller tasks, and work on them for 30 min. to an hour each week. You will move forward one step at a time, rather than trying to tackle it all at once.

Develop and bring materials with you. When you do talk with your faculty advisor, you can bring a simple one page proposal of the career exploration you are engaged in, including sources you are researching and near-term plans for learning more about different options.

Prepare for different responses. You may reach out to one faculty advisor or several. In fact, we encourage you to meet with more than one mentor on your team to widen your potential for support. Practice role playing scenarios with a trusted colleague or friend, where you engage in a conversation about your career interests. Ask your friend to mimic the most unsupportive response to the most supportive response. Utilize these mock responses to gauge what your next steps will be. For example, maybe you find out your advisor has no interest in talking about diverse career opportunities with you but is still fully supportive of your intellectual and technical growth as it pertains to your discipline only. Whom else can you identify (within or outside of your mentoring team) that will advocate for your need to explore diverse career paths?

Help your advisor help you. It is highly likely that your faculty advisor was trained to be a teacher and researcher first and foremost, so they may not have the experience to guide you in exploring diverse career pathways. Share with them your knowledge of all the professional development resources you are accessing (networking, professional associations, social media, UW Career Centers, etc.). Forward them information about campus events, such as job fairs, the Core Programs community college careers panel, or workshops sponsored by the Career Center like How to Find a Job Outside of Academia for Humanities and Social Sciences PhDs. By doing this, you’ll be facilitating a reciprocal learning process about your professional development with your advisor.

All right, we’re totally rooting for you! Please feel free to follow up with us, and let us know if these strategies worked for you. And let us know if you have other suggestions.

Warmly,
Jaye Sablan, Kelly Edwards, Ziyan Bai
Core Programs, UW Graduate School

Negotiating Salary and Your Start-Up Package

In February 2016, the UW Career Center convened a panel of recently hired faculty members to share their perspectives on how to negotiate salary in pursuing an academic career. Here are some highlights from the workshop:

Top Tips:

(Almost) Always negotiate.
Check your attitude (you want to aim for humble-confident).
Think broadly. Beyond just salary, there are moving expenses, set up costs, teaching load, professional development funds, staff support, and etc.
You can’t get it all, but ask yourself: What will help me be a happy, productive faculty member? What are the deal breakers?

Before Asking:

Frame your thinking and communications as a faculty member, not as an aspiring graduate student or postdoc grasping for a position.
Think hard about what you want (what kind of position). Understand fit. What kind of institution are you looking for? What kind of institutional culture? What kind of experience do you want as a professor? What is possible to ask for within the kind of institution in which you are applying?
Do your research. Know what the salary range is for your discipline and type of institution. Know what you can ask for. In order to do this, you can talk with your network, e.g. people who have gotten positions in the last 3-4 years. This helps you know what to expect.

When to Ask?

Never give the first number, even if they ask. Do not talk about salary until you get a job offer.
Do not respond right away after receiving the offer of salary. Let it sit for at least 24 hours.

What to Ask?

Ask for what you need to be successful. Negotiation implies give and take.
Things to ask for: Remember to tie all asks back to your productivity and impact.
- Salary. Consider cost of living in the city, hard money/soft money split – how long before you need to bring in more of your own salary.
- Summer support. Justify it as research/productivity time. It is easier to give since it is a one-time commitment.
- Moving costs. You can get estimates for your move and negotiate for higher amount – usually institutions have set amount whether you move from near or far.
- Tech, grant, and/or teaching support.
- Travel and development. As junior person, you might need to ask for 2 conferences in first 3 years as you build your network and your position.
- Reduced teaching load. How many preps do you want each year (new courses)?
- TA or RA support
Make sure you have what you want at the end of the negotiation.

How to Ask?

Be honest, have integrity. Don’t “BS” – people can see through that.
Be gracious in the way you ask.
Remember humility – you deserve to be treated well (but not better than) all the other faculty.
Tie your requests back to how it will facilitate your contributions and success as a faculty member – you are not asking to be selfish, you are asking because you want to make good on the investment they are making in YOU.

What if…?

You receive multiple offers.
- Be honest. Never misrepresent. Keep in mind these are your colleagues who will be in your national network.
- You can always ask – if you haven’t heard from top choice yet, you can ask where you are in the process because you have another offer.
- Be gracious in asking for more information, and for more time. Search Committees take time, the whole process takes time. E.g. “I have an offer from another institution, but I would be very interested in hearing from you.”
You are moving with your partner who is also pursuing academic career.
- Don’t start asking right away – it can create a barrier.
- You want to be honest. You want to be upfront. But think about when to say it.
- Certain states have “anti-nepotism laws” – strict rules about having relatives be in potential positions of power over each other. Or resource constraints. Research institutional culture/practices – some institutions can be very helpful.
- Sometimes they find “options”, but they are not options that are desirable for your career.
- Sometimes you can ask for career services for your spouse.

Things to Bear in Mind:

When negotiating, you are starting the beginning of a long term relationship. You want to start on the right foot. Be objective, be fair, look for a win-win solution (see Steven Convey). A teaching institution won’t be able to provide a Research I lab space. Know the context in which you are asking.
Don’t take it personally. When they throw a number out, don’t get excited or offended. Look at the range you know they use. It sets your starting point and you move from there. Do not agree on anything right away.
Putting your best self forward in negotiation. Word will get around about the “ridiculous” things you are asking for, or how unreasonable, or difficult you’ve been.
You have to communicate your sense of value. But not your value as “better than everyone else”. Be confident but humble.
If you give up too much, it also creates a lesser If you agree too quickly, you are not perceived as strong. You may end up resenting what others have.

Resources:

Check university websites for benefit packages.
Check with your professional society, or with publicly available databases to find out appropriate salary ranges for your field or the institution. Keep in mind years of experience will count.
Career Center resource on Academic Career: Salary Negotiation
Julia Miller Vick & Jennifer S. Furlong. (2008). Academic Job Search Handbook.
Linda Babcock & Sara Laschever. (2009). Ask for It: How Women Can Use Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want.

Acknowledgement to the panelists:
Dr. Thelma Madzima, Faculty in Biology, UW Bothell
Dr. Hala Annabi, Faculty in iSchool, UW Seattle
Catherine Basl, UW Career Center

Originally posted on February 11, 2016.

You’re Hired!

I feel behind my cohort in terms of applicable experience. I’ve applied to several internships/practicum experiences, but my financial situation dictates that I either need a paid internship or another job while I complete an unpaid internship. Because my classes are during the day, I’ve found the latter next to impossible. Additionally, I haven’t revived much interest in hiring due to my lack of experience. How do I find the right positions for this situation? —Inexperienced

(This week’s answer is courtesy of Catherine Basl, Lead Career Counselor, Career Center.)

Thanks for sharing a bit about your situation. It can definitely feel discouraging when we aren’t having as much luck as we want in the job search and when we are faced with hard decisions about lackluster paid positions versus highly interesting unpaid positions. Below are some tips you might find helpful.

Don’t worry! Most graduate cohorts are made up of students who have a range of applicable experience. If they accepted you into the program, they think you have enough experience to be successful! Though it can be difficult, try to stay positive and confident.
Consider making a list of what you are looking for in a job or internship. Whether it includes a desired weekly schedule, skills, location, or something else, making a list and prioritizing it can help when mulling over possible options.
Applicable experience is more than work experience. Consider your volunteer experience too! If you are within a few years of your undergraduate work you might also include relevant clubs and student activities on your resume. Don’t sell yourself short.
Use your network! If you have only been looking online, consult with your graduate program adviser, departmental staff members and faculty about possible internships. Depending on your field, HuskyJobs might also be a good resource.
Polish your resume and cover letter! Tailor your resume and cover letter for each position and consider getting them reviewed to ensure they are submission-ready. Sometimes tweaking your materials or doing a mock interview can make a world of difference in the job search.
Feeling stuck? Schedule an appointment with a career counselor—we can help you with every step of the process from deciding what’s most important to you to helping you prep for the interview that will land you your dream internship.

Do I Have to TA if I Have a Fellowship?

I received an NRSA predoctoral fellowship. My understanding is that the fellowship is to cover my graduate school tuition so that I can devote full-time efforts to research (as required by NIH policy). However, my department has requested that I TA in the Spring quarter (concurrently with my fellowship) to cover the tuition shortfall. Is this typical? Are there options for tuition waivers so that I may focus solely on research? Are there limits to the number or amount of tuition waivers for NRSA recipients?

(This week’s answer is courtesy of Helene Obradovich, Director of Fellowships and Awards, Graduate School.)

The Graduate School often provides tuition waivers for students who receive prestigious, individually-awarded, nationally-competitive fellowships from external organizations that don’t cover the full cost of tuition. We want to ensure that graduate students know that they can and should apply for these prestigious awards without concern for how they will cover the cost of tuition. Examples of types of funders/awards include the Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral and Dissertation fellowships, NSF Graduate Research fellowships, ACLS fellowships, etc. NIH NRSA individual fellowships also fall into that category. Have your department contact our Fellowships & Awards office to discuss how this might work. The request for tuition coverage must come from your department. Our staff can be reached at gradappt@uw.edu or 3-7152. Any graduate student considering applying for an award that doesn’t cover the full cost of tuition should also contact our Fellowships & Awards office before applying for confirmation on whether we can assist with tuition coverage.

Money money money

I’m entering the last year of my program and my financial resources have run dry. Though I receive loans through the UW, they do not provide the income I need. What options are available to me to help bolster my income for this quarter? —Anonymous

1. Your first stop should be Graduate Funding Information Services (GFIS). They’re the go-to for all funding resources. 2. You can also search the UW job database for student positions (category: Academic Student Employee) and 3. Husky Jobs, which posts academic positions and general job advertisements. 4. If you are interested in a TA/RA/GSA position, contact the department in which you are interested directly for more information. Keep in mind that you can look for positions outside of your home department. Though most departments hire through their own student populations, other departments—particularly those that don’t have graduate students or administrative units that hire graduate staff assistants—will recruit widely for positions from relevant degree programs across campus. 5. Check the Graduate School’s Fellowships and Assistantships page. 6. Consider part-time work that’s flexible and fun to do. Graduate students often work as nannies, tutors, pet-sitters, etc. 7. Always let your department know that you are in need of help. They will know of any opportunities that might not be heavily advertised or for a very specific niche. Good luck!