Funding and Professional Opportunities

Funding Opportunities

Students applying to the doctoral program in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric are eligible to apply for the following awards (figures for graduate appointments represent the most recent stipends). Students in good standing will continue to receive financial support for up to five years of graduate study.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

TAships are offered to approximately four new students each year. All students who are not on a University Fellowship are guaranteed a TAship for five years.The contract is for 8.5 months, no more than an average of 20 hours work per week, and includes a stipend that is determined by the Syracuse Graduate Employees United collective bargaining agreement. TAships include remitted tuition for 9 credits each fall/spring semester and 6 credits in summer for the first 3 years. Teaching assistants appointed by our department have full responsibility for 3 sections of writing instruction a year and are expected to attend regular staff meetings, a first-year teaching practicum that meets weekly in the fall and bi-weekly in the spring, and participate in professional development seminars as well as CCR colloquia. There is also an ongoing mentorship and review of each teaching assistant's performance as a teacher.

Syracuse University Fellowships

University Fellows do not teach in their first or fourth years in the program, leaving those years for intensive coursework and dissertation development. Fellows receive a tax-free stipend of $28,000 for 8.5 months of full-time study. They also receive tuition scholarship for 12 credits each fall/spring semester and 6 credits in summer for a total of 30 during the academic year.

WSRC Internships

Advanced students are invited to apply for administrative internships that include Writing Center Intern, Assistant Director of TA Education, and Assistant Director of WAC. Other internships are sometimes offered according to departmental needs; past positions have included journal/publication intern, graduate program intern, or community partner intern. Internships provide a course release from one course section per year. Please see the Internships page for more information.

Summer Funding

WSRC Summer Teaching: 1 section, competitively offered to graduate students based on student teaching record and course availability. Currently $4,350 for a three hour section.
Pre-Dissertation and Dissertation Fellowships: these competitive fellowships are funded by the Graduate School. See their call for applications that is issued each spring semester.
Engaged Humanities Summer/Winter Research Assistantships: these competitive assistantships, which range from $500 to $3,000, are jointly funded by the Graduate School and the Engaged Humanities program. See the call for proposals that is issued each semester.

External Positions

While our students primarily work within WSRC, they also occasionally work in positions elsewhere on campus. As we become aware of these opportunities, we'll notify the community via the CCR listserv.

Additional Funding (Post-Fifth Year)

The CCR program makes every effort to ensure that students have the requisite funding to complete their degrees, but the program cannot guarantee that funding will be available beyond the typical five-year assistantship/fellowship packages.

For students who require financial support beyond the five-year term of their fellowship or assistantship packages, there are various options:

Students are strongly encouraged to pursue both internal and external dissertation fellowship opportunities during their fourth and fifth year, and most especially in the fifth year, if they know that they will require additional funding.
Depending on departmental availability, there may be a limited number of 1-year teaching assistantships.
Students may apply for PWI positions, although these again depend on availability and a competitive application process.
There are also 2 positions available annually with the Graduate Editing Center (GEC).
Finally, there are occasionally positions available that involve partnerships between WSRC and other departments.

Decisions regarding these opportunities are not made until the completion of the admissions cycle, which can have an effect on the number of positions available. However, in late March or early April the Director of Graduate Studies will send out an email detailing the funding opportunities available to students for the following year and inviting interested students to apply. Application materials typically include:

a cover letter indicating your ranked preferences as well any specific qualifications you have for the positions
an updated CV
a letter from your (Examination or Dissertation) Director outlining degree progress to date and projected progress for the upcoming year

Applications are typically due in the first week of April. The Graduate Studies Committee will review all applications, and in consultation with the Program Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies, allocate the positions. Applications will be evaluated according to the criteria applicable for any academic position (general qualifications, etc.). Additionally, the committee will take into consideration any specific qualifications the student may possess; for example, experience in the Writing Center and/or working with non-native speakers may serve as additional qualification for a GEC position. Finally, the committee will consider carefully the student’s degree progress. They will attempt to accommodate students’ preferences, but this may not always be possible. Students will be notified of the committee’s decision by the end of the semester.

The ultimate goal in providing these opportunities is to enable a student to complete the degree, and as such, a student is more likely to receive a 6th year of support than a 7th or 8th. Our ideal would be to support every student for as long as they need funding; unfortunately, this is not normally possible. Support beyond a 6th year is exceptionally rare.