Student Financial Aid and Housing
Read on about assistantships, fellowships, PhD scholarships and other sources of financial aid as well as information about housing and cost of living considerations.
Assistantships and Fellowships
All full-time students are offered full tuition waivers, a waiver of the educational operations fee, a health insurance credit and graduate assistant stipends (currently $13,658 per year) to cover educational expenses and to help defray living costs. Students are offered the equivalent of two years of full-time assistantship support which they can spread out over their time in the program. For example, a student can choose to have full support for the first two years, half-time support for the first four years or any combination of two years of full-time support.
In return for the stipend, depending on the level of assistantship desired, students are expected to provide 5-20 hours of research, teaching, or administrative assistance per week to the campus.
Regardless of the level of assistantship support, all tuition is waived for funded students. However, should you choose a ¼, ½ or ¾ time award, the stipend, work requirement, waiver of the educational operations fee and credit for the health insurance are all pro-rated. In other words, if you choose a ¼ award, all tuition is covered, but you will receive only ¼ of the full-time stipend level, ¼ of the educational operations fee is paid, ¼ of the health insurance credit is offered, and you will work five hours per week.
Chart of pro-rated assistantship values
Full-time first year students also receive a $2000 fellowship in addition to the above financial awards. These awards are issued in two payments: $1000 in the fall semester after the add/drop period and $1000 in the spring semester, again, paid after the add/drop period ends.
After the first semester, continued financial assistance is dependent upon satisfactory academic and graduate assistant performance.
Third-year students who are not on assistantship support are offered tuition waivers based on their internship/field work on applied public policy projects.
After the second year, our post-residency students can often find paid employment in our department or within the McCormack Graduate School’s policy centers and institutes. These research or teaching appointments can be related to or complement a student’s own policy interests.
Please note that, although we typically waive tuition and most fees for several semesters, stipend payments are not sufficient to cover room and board, books and supplies, transportation and other personal expenses. (See section below on Housing and Cost of Living Considerations.)
Complete list of current tuition and fee charges.
Please note the associated costs for graduate students at either the in-state or out-of-state rates, as appropriate. Please note that all stipend amounts, waivers, tuition and fees are subject to state appropriations and may change each year.
PhD Scholarships
A limited number of PhD scholarships is typically available each year from our annual fund, representing gifts from our faculty, staff and alumni. All students in good standing are eligible but those who demonstrate financial need are given priority consideration.
Other Student Financial Aid
Our doctoral program also offers students small grants to help finance conference participation and travel, membership fees, software purchases, special training and other professional development activities.
Dissertation support grants in the amount of $1500 are typically awarded after defending a dissertation proposal. Students can use these grants for anything from data collection to editing in preparation of their dissertations.
Student Housing and Cost of Living Considerations
Although dormitories will be built in the next few years, UMass Boston currently does not have on-campus student housing. However, UMass does provide housing referral assistance and has a partnership with several area apartment complexes.
In general, students should be prepared to spend a minimum of $1,000 per month for room and board in an apartment within a five to ten mile radius of the campus. Please keep in mind that this is only an estimate and, depending on your lifestyle, costs may be higher. If your spouse and/or children will accompany you, you will, of course, incur higher rents for additional bedroom space as well as additional boarding costs.
Please call 617-287-6011 or consult www.umb.edu/students/housing for more information on prices and availability.
For additional resources to find an apartment or room rental, consult UMass Boston's classified ads,The Community Front Page, or boston.com.
Learning to Build an Equitable Society
Contact us via e-mail at public.policy@umb.edu for more information on our PhD program, or see our PhD Program contact page for additional ways to contact us.
. .TESTIMONIAL ABOUT OUR PhD STUDENTS
“While I've always found the social diversity of our doctoral students to be intellectually energizing, I am also struck by the diversity of my advisees' research interests, methodological approaches, and insights gleaned to date. Yet, notwithstanding the wide array of social policies in which each of them was becoming immersed, there were shared themes and ideas that were emerging organically from their respective research and reading. I feel blessed to be with such a talented, interesting, and dedicated group of people.”
-- Elizabeth Bussiere, PhD, faculty member