University of Pittsburgh

• Pitt Home
• Arts and Sciences
• Contact

• Faculty
• Graduate
  • General Information
  • East Asian
  • Modern/contemporary
  • Europe before 1750
  • Degree requirements
  • Financial aid
  • Graduate students
• Undergraduate
  • General Information
  • History of art and architecture
  • Architectural studies
  • Advising
• Resources
  • Research & Study
  • Collaborations
• News & Events
• How to apply

Financial Aid

Normally all full-time students are fully supported with a teaching assistantship or a fellowship that pays tuition and fees plus a stipend for living expenses. (In 2005-06, the minimum stipend is $13,555 plus free health insurance coverage.) The department offers multiyear packages, up to five years, to virtually all its graduate students; aid is guaranteed for the duration of the package provided the student makes satisfactory progress toward the degree. (Note: Effective 2004, the department will no longer give financial aid to students wishing to pursue a terminal MA.)

The department is now able to offer up to four one-year fellowships (with no teaching duties) to outstanding incoming students. Such students are also eligible to compete for University fellowships, such as the one-year Provost’s Humanities Fellowship, the two-year Leroy Irvis Fellowship (for disadvantaged minorities), and the three-year Chancellor’s Chinese Fellowship (open to students in Chinese art history).

Continuing students have many fellowship opportunities awarded by competition, including the University’s one-year Mellon Fellowship, the Culture Studies Fellowship, and the University’s many foreign language and area studies (FLAS) grants. In recent years, virtually all of our PhD students have won at least one full year of fellowship support from these sources. PhD students in American art have access to the department’s Luce Dissertation fund, which funds specific research needs or projects up to approximately $3,000 per project. Continuing students are also eligible for the department’s own travel fund for dissertation research, which usually pays up to $2,500 per student. 

Students are also actively mentored in the process of grant writing. Our students have had notable success in recent years in winning national and international fellowships, for example, from the Center for Advanced Study of Visual Arts in Washington, D.C., the Georgia O’Keeffe Center in Santa Fe, the College Art Association, the Kress Foundation, and the Berlin Program For Advanced German & European Studies.

Teaching assistantships are carefully controlled to require no more than 20 hours per week of the student’s time. Duties vary from grading only to teaching stand-alone courses. In some cases, TA positions are used for work in the University art gallery or in the visual resource collection, or for research assistant positions.

For more details on fellowships and teaching assistantships, see the Graduate Handbook.