Financial Support

Students may have guaranteed financial support during the summer months, but only if this is detailes in their financial support letter at admission.  The guarateed support may come in the form of campus employment, fellowship/stipends, or a combination of the two.

Students without a guarantee of summer support should plan accordingly.  Students may apply to available employment opportunities across campus (including Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistant positions), however they may also need to pursue off-campus employment opportunities.

Specific for summer: Students do not need to be enrolled in Summer Session to receive financial support during the summer. For most types of support, eligibility to receive support in the preceding Spring Quarter extends through summer. Domestic students are eligible to receive support in the summer after they graduate, assuming they graduate in Spring Quarter and maintained eligibility for support in spring. International students are only eligible to receive support through their quarter of graduation, assuming they maintain their eligibility for support overall. 

All UCSD graduate students are charged tuition and fees each quarter. These can vary slightly year-to-year, and students can view the detailed breakdown of fees for specific years on the GEPA website: http://grad.ucsd.edu/financial/tuition-fees.html. Several types of support will cover the cost of tuition and many of the fees. In those cases, the fees students must pay will be reduced significantly:

• Employment: Teaching Assistant, Reader, Associate Instructor, and Graduate Student Researcher positions of 25% time or greater for a quarter will cover all the general tuition & fees cost for that quarter (except for the one-time document fee, one-time Visa processing fee, and the UCGPC Systemwide Fee).
• Non-Employment Financial Awards: Varies by financial award. Students should refer to the details of a specific award to see what tuition and fees it may cover.

Students should refer to the Enrollment & Registration calendar for the fee payment deadline each quarter: https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/enroll/index.html. Tuition & fee payments from employment positions will post approximately ten days before the fee payment deadline. Students may access their bill online (https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/billing-payment/index.html), and tuition & fee payments from campus sources will appear in a “Pending Awards” box. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure all tuition & fees are paid by the fee payment deadline, to avoid late fees and possible dropped enrollment. Students should check their bill online well in advance of the fee payment deadline, and they should reach out to the advising staff at mfawriting@ucsd.edu if they do not see an expected tuition & fees payment posted.

Non-California residents are required to pay Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition each quarter, which is charged in addition to the tuition and fees that all students pay (see GEPA’s website for details: http://grad.ucsd.edu/financial/tuition-fees.html). 

• For domestic non-California residents, the Department covers the cost of Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition for one year. These students must establish California residency after their first year at UCSD.  If a student fails to establish (or elects not to establish) California residency after their first year, the student will be responsible for paying the Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition going forward.
• For international students, the Department covers the cost of Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition for the three years following admissions (or completion of the degree, if less than three years). If an international student fails to graduate within those three years, the student will be responsible for paying the Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition each subsequent quarter.

The Department considers apprentice teaching a beneficial part of professional training for the MFA degree.  Every student is required to be a 50% teaching assistant for at least one academic quarter.  Duties of a teaching assistant usually include attending the lectures for the course, reading and grading papers and examinations, meeting with the supervising professor to discuss the progress of the course, conducting discussion sections, and holding office hours.

Students who are not native-English-speakers may be required to pass an English Screening Examination before they can teach courses conducted in English.  Courses designed to enhance English language skills are available to assist students in passing the screening so that they may teach.  Contact the advising staff for detailed information.

Full-time MFA students in good standing are eligible for 50% Teaching Assistantships on campus.  However, the maximum number of quarters a student may have Teaching Assistant appointments is eighteen, according to UC policy.  Appointments during Summer Session do not count towards this total.  While it is highly unlikely that MFA students will approach this maximum, it is an important policy to be aware of (as time spent as a TA in previous and future graduate programs within the UC-system is included in this total). 

The maximum academic employment appointment a student may accept is 50%.  Anything over that must be petitioned as an exception and only up to 75% time.  No first-year students will be considered for over-50% exceptions.  International students may not be employed over 50% during the academic year.

MFA students generally find employment in one of the six campus College Writing Programs or in Literature.  Most of these programs offer pedagogical training.  These positions are generally filled each Spring Quarter, and students will be sent application instructions via the Department listserv. 

Supervising professors write formal teaching evaluations for each teaching assistant who works with them, and students enrolled in the course will often complete online evaluations of their assigned TA.  Students may access completed teaching evaluations by logging in with their Single Sign-On or Student PID/PAC: http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/Evals (be sure to select “Student SSO” as the “Sign on with:” option).  If you cannot access your evaluations for any reason, please contact the advising staff at mfawriting@ucsd.edu for assistance. TAs should download and review their evaluations after final grades have been posted, and then correct any significant weaknesses by the end of the following quarter. Please seek advising from the MFA director.  It is the student’s responsibility to download and save their evaluations each quarter, as they will not be able to access them after graduation (and the department will not be able to provide copies).

Teaching assistants are expected to take very seriously their responsibilities to their students, and the evaluations are very important. The ratings and comments may impact the graduate student's—

• Teaching apprenticeship grade.
• Annual Spring Evaluation.
• Eligibility for future employment as a TA or reader.
• Eligibility for future merit-based scholarships or fellowships.

Instructors expect TAs to have a positive attitude and professional work habits, and to follow instructions for grading and conducting sessions. Undergraduate students have similar expectations. Here are common reasons why TAs receive unsatisfactory teaching apprenticeship grades or evaluations:

• Arriving late for lectures, discussion sections, or office hours.
• Canceling discussion sections with little or no notice.
• Disregarding instructions for conducting section or grading student work.
• Failing to return graded work to students in a timely manner.
• Behaving disrespectfully, inappropriately, or dismissively when interacting with the instructor or students.
• Failing to keep accurate academic records or submit grades on time.

Readerships

Each quarter some departments hire Readers to assist professors who teach large courses by grading papers and examinations.  Their workload is prorated according to the enrollment of the courses.  Readers are paid an hourly rate for their work, and it is recommended that Reader positions be considered as a possible supplement to a Teaching Assistantship (rather than a primary source of income).

To be considered for a Readership, please apply online to the open positions.  Email notifications will be sent to the Department listserv to keep students up-to-date on when these positions become open, but students should also refer to the full list of available positions posted on the IA System Open Positions page (https://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/ASES/OpenPositions.aspx). 

Other Employment

The Graduate Office regularly receives requests during the academic year for tutors, editors, writers, translators, and other various positions across campus (and off-campus).  Announcements of this type will be sent via the Department listserv.

Students working as Teaching Assistants and Readers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement between the University and the UAW. Their names and addresses will be released to the UAW each term that they are employed in the bargaining unit.  The Union Agreement can be retrieved electronically at: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/labor/bargaining-units/bx/contract.html.

Students are encouraged to apply for relevant fellowships through the University and through other granting institutions. 

A number of fellowships (both UC-based and extramural) are available annually.  Information about these fellowships is available from GEPA. The GEPA website: https://grad.ucsd.edu/financial/fellowships/index.html lists a wide variety of information about UCSD and UC need-based and merit-based financial assistance, as well as numerous extramural fellowship opportunities. These sites are regularly updated. Please contact GEPA for information on extramural fellowships.

There is also a list of funding opportunities for graduate students posted on the Division of Arts & Humanities website (https://ah.ucsd.edu/students/graduate.html). Information about extramural fellowships and awards is also available in the reference section of the Central University Library under Contracts and Grants.

A wide variety of local (system-wide and UCSD) awards are available from various agencies, Departments, and programs.  Enrolled graduate students receive regular notification about available fellowships from the Graduate Office and from GEPA through the Department listserv.

The Department of Literature administers and allocates funds for graduate students’ travel for conferences and research. As literary artists, research comes in many different shapes and sizes, from academic conferences to artist residencies, from visiting archives to conducting interviews. Each MFA in Writing student may apply for up to a maximum of $1,000 per fiscal year (i.e. July 1st – June 30th). None of these funds will carry-forward to future years, if unused. These funds are available to students who are currently enrolled in the program, in good academic standing, and within their normative time. For the MFA in Writing, normative time to degree is three years. A completed application (online form found on the "Forms" page) must be submitted for each separate trip, and the submission deadlines and payout schedules are listed at the top of the application.

The funds can be requested for any of the following travel costs:

• Primary transportation
  • Airfare
  • Train ticket
  • Mileage-based gas funds, if you drive your own vehicle (local travel only)
  • General gas money, if someone else will be driving you in their vehicle
• Secondary transportation (taxi, airport shuttle, Uber, Lyft, subway, etc.), with a maximum of $100 per day
• Lodging (hotel, hostel, Airbnb, Vrbo, personal residence, etc.)
• Conference registration fees
• Per diem (food, parking, supplies, etc.), with a maximum of $100 per day
• Travel costs for dependent children of a student parent

Within the application, you must attach quotes or receipts for any singular items (airfare, train tickets, lodging, and conference registration fees). You are not required to purchase items ahead of time, if you submit your request earlier enough to receive the stipend before making your purchases.

Policy Guidelines

Please contact the Graduate Coordinator if you have any questions.

• Funds are to be used during normative time only; no funding after the 3rd year will be approved.
• No late or retroactive requests will be approved if they cross over into the next fiscal year. All requests for a given academic year must be submitted by the June deadline posted on the application at the latest.
• Funds must be used for conference or research travel only. If you wish to take personal travel time before or after your conference/research, you are welcome to do so. However, the funds received from the department may only be used for items during the conference/research window (apart from the primary transportation).
• Funds are provided in the form of stipend payments, which are considered taxable income. As tax statuses vary student-to-student and fall outside our department’s scope, we cannot advise or answer questions on individual student tax topics.
• Fund requests may be denied if the type of travel or lodging chosen is not seen as an economical choice (from the options available) or if the justification and purpose of the trip does not clearly align with the student’s research in the program.
  • If any requests are questionable on cost efficiency or purpose, they may be subject to review by the MFA Program Director. If this happens, we cannot guarantee the stipend will be paid out on time, even if the request was submitted before the deadline. 
• For students travelling to another UC campus, up to $250 of the travel funds requested (per trip) will not count towards the $2,000 limit mentioned above. Students must specifically mention that they will be travelling to another UC campus (in the trip justification field on the request form) in order for this to apply.

Tax Liability

Teaching Assistantships, Readerships, Research Assistantships, and most fellowships and stipends are taxable.  For additional tax information, refer to the following pages:

• 1098-T Tax Form Information (ucsd.edu)
• Tax Resources (ucsd.edu)
• Form 1042-S (ucsd.edu)
• Taxation of Fellowship Payments to Internationals (ucsd.edu)

Employment Documentation & Benefits

Graduate students employed by UCSD have access to benefits and employment information through the UCPath Online Self-Service Portal (https://ucpath.ucsd.edu/self-service/index.html) and the At Your Service Online website (https://atyourserviceonline.ucop.edu/ayso/).  For instructions on how to setup your access to At Your Service Online, students should follow the instructions here: https://blink.ucsd.edu/HR/benefits/AYSO/SSO.html.