Though some students will be self-financed, three major sources will be combined to support our students: college, departmental, and unit fellowship funds; departmental and college TA/RA/GSA positions; and faculty-generated grant and contract funding. The intent is that those students who are awarded funding will usually receive fellowships in the first year to support them as they become acquainted with program faculty and research agendas; then serve as TAs/RAs in their second year, using their own expertise in a match with program and college activities; then in the third and following years, in conjunction with specialization in the area of the dissertation project, work as an active member of a funded research or teaching project. The faculty members who elect to work with the program agree to actively pursue and obtain grants and contracts to provide funding for their projects and students, both as part of their mentoring responsibility and because such collaboration is essential for the faculty’s research projects.
When students are accepted into our program, our acceptance letters include individual information on the financial support we can offer them. These offer packages can potentially include full or partial tuition waivers, fellowships, stipends, teaching and/or research positions. We don’t know in advance what that offer package may include, as it depends on what we have available for the students we want to make offers to at the time we make our admissions decisions.
Though we do our best to make certain our students have the support they need, we cannot guarantee support for all students each quarter.
Current Student Tuition Rates. Note that we are on the Seattle campus and our program’s rate is Graduate Tier 1. Doctoral students generally take 10 credits per quarter, and attend Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters. Only occasionally do students attend Summer Quarter.
The College of Built Environments actively supports the PhD in the Built Environment with first-year fellowship funding for three students, which we combine with tuition waivers awarded through the Graduate School’s Fund for Excellence and Innovation Top Scholar Awards, and offer at the time of admission.
Full 20-hour teaching associate (TAs), research associate (RAs), and graduate staff associate (GSAs) positions include tuition waivers. Hourly positions for less than 20 hours are also available throughout the college, but these do not include tuition waivers.
TAs are awarded by the program and by individual departments (Architecture, Construction Management, Landscape Architecture, Real Estate, and Urban Design and Planning). The College has a series of undergraduate interdisciplinary B E courses which offer TA support to students in our History, Theory, Representation and Sustainability tracks.
RAs are awarded by college research labs and centers and individual faculty members who have received grant funding.
Full-time (20-hour) GSAs are rare, but do occur within the college and university.
Stipends which provide some minimal funding and a reduction to resident-rate tuition may also be available, and tuition waivers may be available.
When our program makes admissions offers, we will include information on any of the above support we can offer at the time. We make every effort to make offers for multiple years in the program.
Advanced students with teaching experience may also develop and offer their own courses during Summer Quarter.
Our students have received TAs and fellowships from departments elsewhere in the university, including Civil Engineering, Comparative History of Ideas, Environmental & Occupational Health, The Jackson School of International Studies, and Marine and Environmental Affairs among others.
The Graduate School provides funding information for students, including internal and external fellowships administered by the Graduate School.
Our students have received:
- Clean Energy Institute Graduate Fellowship
- Chester Fritz fellowships
- Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships
- International Tuition Waivers
- Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy (PIP) Fellowships
- Valle Scholarships
Our international students have been supported by external fellowships and funding from their home governments.
Our students have taught at UW Bothell, UW Tacoma, and Western Washington University.
The Graduate Funding Information Service (GFIS) works with students to help them locate funding opportunities and has a blog listing fellowships and deadlines.
Our students have received:
We strongly encourage program students to present papers or posters or give invited talks at academic conferences related to their area of study. There are several sources of funding available, and these may be combined.
Apply on your own:
- Some research grants include travel funding. If you are an RA on a research grant, check with the PI to see if this is available to you.
- The Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS) offers some travel funding.
- A few conferences offer student scholarships.
Apply through the program:
- The Graduate School offers some support for travel and conference fees only (no accommodation).
- The program itself has been awarded an allocation of travel funding (which can include accommodation) for student use.
To apply for funds through the program (including Graduate School support, which must be submitted by the program), please complete the form below.
Conference travel information needed
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The Dean’s Dissertation Research Grant is a new dimension in CBE’s continuing commitment to increase resources that encourage and support conducting BE Ph.D. research at the highest level, in order that the findings can make a critical contribution to a successful dissertation (and eventually presented at refereed conferences and published in refereed venues).
The Dean’s Dissertation Research Grant makes funding available to BE Ph.D. students to carry out portions of their specialized dissertation research. Students who have passed their General Examination and been granted Doctoral Candidate status by the Graduate School, and have had their research proposal approved by their doctoral committees, may apply for funding for research activity such as: obtaining data sets; traveling to conduct the primary research (as distinct from presenting at a conference); providing compensation to participants for being interviewed; paying for permissions to access or use archival material, including reproducing or publishing it. The funding proposals must be specific about what is requested, and must include an overview of the approved dissertation research proposal, the reasons why the activity to be supported is crucial to the project, and indication of when the specific work will occur in the overall dissertation timeline. We also ask for a current copy of the students’ full research proposal document.
Requests will be reviewed on a rolling basis by the program director. Students may receive no more than one award per academic year.
To apply complete this form.
Questions about the PhD in the Built Environment? Email bephd@uw.edu.