Graduate Student Funding

Learn About Funding Opportunities

New Students

There are several ways to be funded at UC Davis. The offer of admission and any offer of financial support are separate processes. Financial offers may be sent at anytime, and are most commonly sent throughout February, March, and April. UC Davis is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), and per the Council of Graduate Schools Resolution, and students are under no obligation to accept a financial offer prior to April 15. 

MS Students

Most MS students will not receive an initial financial offer prior to starting. If you do not receive an initial financial offer that does not mean that you won’t have funding while here. Not all students will be funded (especially true for MS students). Many of our students will find partial funding, or full funding for select quarters, throughout the course of their graduate studies. We highly encourage students to be proactive in seeking funding opportunities outside our department and outside campus.

Ph.D. students

Ph.D. students are generally admitted directly under the supervision of a specific Major Professor. Many Ph.D. students will receive an initial financial offer from their Major Professor. Funding offers generally include a mix of different employment opportunities and fellowship. 

Overview

Students are responsible for staying on top of their funding situation. We highly recommend students check their account balances/paychecks at least once a month, and always check their MyBill account well in advance of the graduate student final fee payment deadline. We also highly recommend students check in with their faculty member about their funding each quarter so they can understand how they are being funded. Mistakes do happen, and when students ask questions and bring issues to the awareness of the staff, those mistakes can usually be fixed quickly.

If you are funded, your Major Professor is generally responsible for coordinating your funding, and letting the various staff members know what the funding plan is (and students should be in communication with their Major Professor as well). I highly recommend you have frequent and open conversations about your funding with your faculty so you understand the funding source, funding level, funding duration, and work expectations associated with your funding plan. We also encourage the use of the CEE Student Support Planning Worksheet for this purpose.

All funding is contingent on eligibility to receive the funding (more information and links below). Generally, eligibility includes: legal status to work and/or receive fellowships, prerequisites (such as TA orientation), full time enrollment, GPA, good standing, and satisfactory progress. In CEE, students can work between 25-50% during the academic year, and up to 100% in summer.

General information: More information is coming soon. View our Support Planning Worksheet.

Fellowships

Fellowships are highly prestigious financial support packages that typically include a stipend, tuition remission, and a subsidy for medical insurance. They derive from University or outside awards. 

  • External Fellowships
  • External fellowships are those offered by private foundations, government agencies, and corporations.  A variety of support is given, from one-time awards to multi-year support. You are strongly encouraged to apply for external fellowships on your own – find information about external fellowships.

    Your faculty members can be a great source of help in thinking about which external fellowships to apply for. You are always encouraged to talk to your mentors about this. You can also keep a look out for external grants that you or your PI could apply for. If you help your PI find a fun grant, you might be able to work on it too!

    Graduate Studies also lists several search engines that can be useful in finding external fellowships. Also, the Office of Research have developed a video tutorial for getting started with the Pivot database. 
  • Internal Fellowships
  • Internal fellowships are funds that you receive—and do not have to pay back—that are intended to support you as a student for you to fully engage in your academics and research. Fellowships may be in the form of tuition payments (funds paid directly toward the tuition costs) or as stipend payments (funds paid out to the student). There are campus-level as well as departmental fellowships. Students must meet eligibility requirements to receive a fellowship.

    Campus Level Fellowships:
    - All new students who applied by the fellowship deadline are considered for the Campus Prospective Student Fellowships automatically with your application. A few select students will be nominated by the department for campus-level fellowships, which are extremely competitive.
    - Continuing students are HIGHLY encouraged to apply for campus-level fellowships each fall – I strongly encourage you take the time to see which of these you are eligible for. A list of available fellowships is on the Graduate Studies.

    CEE Program Fellowships:
    All students (regardless of new or continuing, and which application deadline new students applied by) are considered for CEE Program Fellowships at the departmental level. These fellowships are based on merit and decided on by our faculty in each research area. Our faculty generally take all their students and other funding into consideration as they select and allocate the department fellowships, and these fellowship funds are often combined with other funding. Our CEE Program Fellowships are also sometimes called departmental fellowships, GPFA, MEIP, or Block Grant. The faculty decisions on how to use department fellowship funds may be made at time of recruitment, over the summer, and/or throughout the year. 

Additional Resources

Academic Appointments

Students must be legally eligible to work to hold an academic appointment, and meet general eligibility requirements. Academic appointments 25% or greater come with partial or full fee remission (depending on appointment type) in addition to a salary. 

View the Graduate Studies website for Student Employment for additional information, eligibility, and up-to-date resources.

  • Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

  • You might be hired by a particular faculty member (e.g., your major advisor) to engage in research. GSR positions pay a salary, and also provide full tuition and fee remission (in-state and NRST). GSR positions are more common for PhD and MS thesis (plan I) students.

    Information on GSRs

  • Teaching Assistant (TA), Reader, Tutor
  • Each quarter, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering hires graduate students to serve as Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Readers in support of undergraduate instruction. Applications are submitted through a Google Form during the designated application period. 

    View all information and apply to TA and Reader positions.
  • Hours, expectations, and timesheets
  • All employees are expected to complete a monthly or hourly timesheet based on employment. Hourly employees will be paid based on hours reported in their timesheet, and failure to complete the timesheet by the deadline may result in delayed payment. Monthly timesheets must be used for leave reporting (ie: Paid Time Off, Leave Without Pay) and/or to confirm that no leave was used. 

    At the beginning of every quarter, students should work with their supervisor (instructor of record for a course or PI) to understand their work expectations, schedule for work, and preferred method of requesting leave. If at any time, the student finds that the work assigned exceeds the allotted hours indicated by their appointment, the student should address this with their supervisor immediately to discuss adjusting expectations. If the student needs additional support in this conversation, they are welcome to contact the Graduate Program Coordinator, Graduate Advisor, and/or Department Chair as they feel appropriate. 

Additional Resources

Getting Paid

  • International Student Payments
  • International graduate students must have a complete Glacier record in order to receive any funding, and incomplete Glacier records are the number one reason international students receive their payments late. Students can request an account to get started and receive information to login.  The payee (student) must complete the process, including providing copies of their immigration documents through the secure file upload tool.  Once this process is complete, they are eligible for payment.
  • Salary Points
  • There are salary scale increments, or salary points, for GSR and TA titles. View the Contract Salary Scale Estimate. Our department hires students based on the experience noted in the salary scale.
  • Getting Started (first pay day)
  • Salary for academic appointments are paid in arrears (at the end of the month worked). If you are funded for fall quarter as a TA or GSR, the first payment (academic appointment salary) is generally November 1 (readers are biweekly-see below). 

    Some students may qualify for an emergency loan, short-term loan, graduate assistant loan, or the fall quarter graduate transition loan through the financial aid office to assist with your financial needs until payday.

    Starting in 2021, the fall fellowship has been shifted into 4 disbursement dates to allow earlier payment.
  • Pay Day

  • Academic Appointments

    For academic appointments (TA, Reader, GSR), you can look at the Payday Notice Calendar.

    Note: TA and GSR’s receive monthly pay. Readers receive biweekly pay (UNLESS you are a reader and a TA or GSR in the same quarter—then you will be paid monthly.)

    Your employment verification and the paychecks can be viewed in UC Path.

    Note: The paycheck is only available to “view” in UCPath a few days before payday. Check the “Processing Schedule” calendar from the above website for the “Pay statements on UC Path” date if you are really interested.

    SPECIFIC TO READERSHIP: you MUST fill out and submit a timesheet, OR YOU WILL NOT BE PAID. Readers are paid based on the number of hours submitted. For a 25% appointment, the department expects you to have a timesheet of about 10 hours per week (110 hours total). 

    Fellowships

    Stipends for internal fellowships are entered in the Banner Student Information System and routed through Student Accounting. The disbursement calendar can be found here (second half of the page).

    Note: after stipends have been entered, the stipend amounts, and refunds as they post, can be viewed in MyBill.

  • Fall Transition Loans
  • TAships will always be entered into Path with start and end dates of October 1 to December 31, so TAs will always receive their first pay checks November 1. We strongly recommend students in this situation apply for a Fall Quarter Graduate Transition Loan. While it is called a loan, it functions as an advance by allowing the student to borrow up to $1,900 (or 1/4 of their total salary). This will then be repaid in 3 payments subtracted from their subsequent paychecks with no interest taken out. Participating in this program should result in students receiving roughly the same income each of the 4 months starting October 1. If interested, students will need to take timely action to receive this option (generally prior to the start of the quarter).

Other Important Funding Information and Terms

  • Graduate Student Fees and Tuition
  • The official information about Fees and Tuition can be found on the Finance & Business website.
  • Graduate Student Final Fee Payment Deadline
  • You may get reminders about paying you fees early every quarter - most "fee payment deadlines" are Undergraduate deadlines.  Be sure to pay attention to when the Graduate Student Final Fee Payment Deadline is each quarter - you will find those dates on the Registrar's Fees & Billing Calendar, but it is always the Thursday in the 8th week of the term.
  • Direct Deposit
  • Given the delays associated with paper checks, Direct Deposit makes a big difference in the speed with which students can receive their stipend and pay checks. There are two separate direct deposit systems students will need to sign up for. Student Accounting’s Direct Deposit is for payments coming from Student Financial Support fellowships and GSR Trainee (3150) and Fellow (3140) primary awards, while the UCPath Direct Deposit is for paychecks from TA, Reader, GSR Trainee and Fellow Supplements (JC 3160), or GSR positions.
  • Graduate Studies Emergency Grant Program
  • The Graduate Studies Emergency Grant Program provides support for graduate students experiencing unexpected challenges that impede their progress toward their degrees. Examples include:
    - Medical, dental, or other health emergencies  
    - Accidents and unexpected events such as natural disasters.
    - Expenses associated with family emergencies such as death in the immediate family

    Grants are for the direct use of enrolled students in academic graduate programs, including international and undocumented students, and their dependents.  Please visit the Graduate Studies Emergency Grant Program website for more information and to apply.
  • FAFSA/California Dream Act Application
  • All students eligible to fill out the FAFSA or the California Dream Act Application should fill it out EVERY YEAR. There are a few awards each year—as well as work/study opportunities—that require these applications.  More information can be found here.
  • Work Study
  • Work study for graduate students is a way for a student to be hired as a GSR that yields a cost savings for the hirer. In CEE, faculty apply for our departments allocated work study on behalf of their students, but can only do so if the student in question has demonstrated need (FAFSA).
  • Campus Fee Grant
  • Many students who complete the FAFSA will be offered a Campus Fee Grant and loans through financial aid. The UC Davis Campus Fee Grant is the only grant administered by the Graduate Financial Aid Office. It is a need-based award for students who establish and maintain sufficient financial need.  Please note, Campus Fee Grant funding is not guaranteed. The Graduate Financial Aid Office strongly recommends that every FAFSA filing student report all anticipated external and academic funding (Grants, Fellowships, TA ships, GSR’s etc.) to their office so they can accurately determine your financial aid eligibility. For example, if a Campus Fee Grant is paid to you for fall quarter and you receive a large amount of new fellowship funding in the winter quarter which exceeds your unmet need, you may have to repay the fall Campus Fee Grant. If you have any questions about the Campus Fee Grant, please contact the Graduate Financial Aid Office.
  • UC Path
  • UCPath is the payroll system for UC Davis. If you have an academic employment (GSR, TA, Reader position), you will be able to see your employment and important employment information in UCPath. 

    Your first point of contact for issues related to UC Path is the hiring department.
  • AUSS-C
  • The shared-services HR unit our department uses is called AUSS-C. They are important when it comes to academic appointment positions (GSR, TA, Reader), and are positioned in between the department and UCPath.
  • Fee Remission
  • Academic appointments come with an employment benefit called fee remission. Depending on the type of employment, you may receive full or partial fee remission. More information is here.
  • Tax Resources
  • Student Accounting Tax Information
    GSA Legal, Patient, and Taxes
    Students in VITA UC Davis

Funding Related Systems and Who To Ask

Generally speaking, the key people involved with your funding will be:

  • Your Major Professor/ PI
  • Your departmental Account Manager (if you are hired on a grant or are spending money from a grant)
  • The Graduate Program Coordinator

Sometimes, staff from Financial Aid, Student Accounting, Graduate Studies (the entity responsible for coordinating internal and external fellowships), UC Path, AUSS-C, and others will be involved.

The Graduate Program Coordinator, Lauren Worrell, is a good first point of contact for most questions related to funding rules/policy, funding and payment issues, what you see on your bill, fee remission policies, etc.

UC Davis has three separate accounting systems: the Banner Student Information System (SIS), the Payroll System (UCPath), and the Kuali Financial System (KFS). Each of these three financial systems is used to deliver student support to academic graduate students.

Faculty Information

Do you have suggestions/additions for our student funding resources page? 
Contact Lauren Worrell at [email protected]