The following awards may be of interest to graduate students in the Department of Spanish at Western Michigan University.
Departmental aid
Teaching assistantships are offered to qualified master's and doctoral students. Teaching assistantships provide a stipend, which is normally sufficient to support a frugal student.
Awards are for one year, with the possibility of renewal (maximum total of two years for M.A. students; four years for Ph.D. students). Renewal or continuation of assistantships depends on satisfactory performance in both teaching and graduate studies, as well as on availability of University resources.
Teaching assistants are generally responsible for teaching three courses per year, two in one semester and one in the other semester, and are required to take at least two courses (six credit hours total) per semester.
Doctoral associateships are available to a limited number of Ph.D. students. The associateship, which may be awarded either for teaching or research, covers full-time tuition and also provides a stipend for an entire year (as opposed to two semesters). Applications for teaching assistantships or associateships are available online.
Deadlines
- Feb. 15 for students planning to enroll for the fall semester
- Oct. 15 for those planning to enroll for the spring semester
The department may consider late applications if enrollment is not filled.
Non-departmental aid
- The Graduate College of Western Michigan University offers graduate students assistantships, dissertation fellowships, research funds, tuition remission, tuition grants and assistance for historically underrepresented students.
- The Office of Student Financial Aid has information about student loans and other federal, state and WMU need-based programs. The application deadline for aid from WMU and Michigan is Feb. 15.
Special facilities and opportunities
Graduate students studying Spanish have access to the the language technology center, as well as to the language library, both located in Brown Hall. The library receives subscriptions to many popular Spanish-language periodicals and also offers a sizable collection of dictionaries and other reference materials. All students have access to the substantial collection of Hispanic materials in Waldo Library, WMU's main library, as well as to the prestigious collection of rare books and manuscripts in the Center for Cistercian and Monastic Studies and internationally renown Medieval Institute.
WMU offers study abroad programs in collaboration with the Universidad de Burgos, in Burgos, Spain; Arcos Abroad, in Heredia, Costa Rica; the Universidad de San Francisco, in Quito, Ecuador; and the Universidad de Cantabria, in Santander, Spain. Interested graduate students may be offered the opportunity to work abroad helping with these programs.