Funding Sources for Graduate Students (GEO)

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Last updated: Apr 23, 2024 by Joseph Stoll

Graduate Assistantships

Students work with faculty as instructors and graders for lower division undergraduate courses, whereby work may include grading, preparing and leading discussion sections, conducting review sessions, photocopying, recording grades/attendance, and other tasks related to the assigned course. Departmental funding in the form of a Graduate Assistantship (as a Teaching Assistant or Research Assistant) is usually provided for 2 years for Master’s students and 4 years for Ph.D. students. Funding is contingent upon satisfactory progress in the program.

Community Geography Graduate Assistantship

Offered in association with Syracuse Community Geography, funding is available for up to 3 years for students with GIS skills and an interest in using GIS to investigate community concerns. Preference will be given to students with experience and interest in community geography, participatory GIS and participatory research, and community organizing.

Learn more about how to apply for the Community Geography Graduate Assistantship.

University Fellowship

Awarded on the basis of the applicant’s overall merit, the Fellowship covers master's students' first year of study and years 1 and 3 for doctoral students. Funding for year 2, for both master's and doctoral students, is provided through the Teaching Assistantship.

Watson Assistantship

The Watson Assistantship provides one year of stipend and tuition credits for a student from Latin America or the Caribbean, or students conducting MA or PhD research in Latin America and/or the Caribbean. The Watson Assistantship permits the student to take classes without the need to work as a Graduate Assistant. The Department can typically provide one Watson Assistantship per year.

Maxwell and Graduate School Summer Research Awards

These awards are intended to help defray the costs of activities that advance the student’s research agenda, or can be used to help defray the costs of a professional development experience, such as language training or a relevant workshop. Award recipients may be asked to report to the department on some aspect of their professional development experience at a brown-bag lunch or Friday colloquium meeting during the following fall semester.

Master's students will be guaranteed one year of summer funding, receiving the maximum award. This only holds if the student does not have external support that is equal to or greater than the combined amount of a fellowship and summer award.

PhD students will be guaranteed summer funding following their first and second years of residence, receiving the maximum award each year. This only holds only if the student does not have external support that is equal to or greater than the combined amount of a fellowship and summer award.

Remaining funds will be available for current students with the following priority:

  1. Completion of field-work (highest priority)
  2. Attending workshop or conference that has clear professional development and networking potential (moderate priority)
  3. All other requests (including finishing writing thesis/dissertation; studying for qualifying exams; Syracuse-based transcription, data analysis, etc.) (low priority)


Department Fellowship and Scholarship Opportunities

David E. Sopher Memorial Scholarships

This scholarship memorializes our deceased colleague, Professor David E. Sopher, a friend, mentor and colleague to many of the faculty and numerous Syracuse graduate alumni. The scholarship carries a stipend and is for the support of a graduate student’s research. Students in good academic standing and with research interests either in South Asia or cultural-social geography regardless of regional focus are eligible. Preference is normally given to doctoral students. Sopher Scholarships are awarded in the Fall; there may be one or two per year, depending on available resources.

Hsu Research Fellowship

Named in honor of Dr. Hsu, a former SU graduate, this scholarship provides supplemental field grants for students working on Taiwan. Secondary consideration is given to students from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, or India.

Mark Monmonier Award

In 2022, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Mark Monmonier provided a generous gift to the Department of Geography and the Environment to support graduate student research. One of the discipline’s leading cartographers, Professor Monmonier dedicated his career to the study of cartography and geospatial analysis, using archival and numerical datasets. He also took particular interest in making his research, and geography more generally, accessible to a wide audience. This award is intended to provide research support to a graduate student whose demonstrated appreciation of clarity aligns with these interests.

External scholarships are also available. Information about addition scholarship opportunities that may be  of interest is available on Syracuse University's Financial Aid website under "Scholarships."