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Financing Your Education

The following answers many of the commonly asked questions in regards to financing your education at the I School:

Fees, Fellowships and Financial Aid

What are the fees for the I School?
Graduate students who qualified as residents of California were required to pay $9,577 in fees for the 2007-08 academic year. Nonresidents and international students were required to pay the nonresident tuition in addition to the fees, for a total of $24,565 for the 2007-08 academic year. Please note that tuition and fees are subject to change each academic semester.

Nonresidents, for purposes of registration, are those who have not been legal residents of California for more than one year immediately before the opening day of the semester for which they register. Legal residence is a combination of physical presence and the intention of making the state one's permanent home, coupled with the relinquishment of legal residence in any other state. International students with F-1 visas cannot be classified as California residents for tuition purposes.

For details, please see the following web sites:

Is fellowship support provided by the I School?
Each year, the I School has available a number of merit-based fellowships for domestic and international students. Applicants interested in applying for fellowship assistance must complete Part C of the application.

Fellowships for Master's students are awarded only for the first year of study, and cover all or part of the registration fees. A number of student research and teaching appointments are also available to qualified Master's students, which also greatly reduce the registration fees (see student employment section below). On average, about half of the admitted Master's students receive fellowhip assistance during their first year of study, covering all or part of their educational costs. Please note the I School does not offer Master's students stipends for living expenses. Fellowship support for continuing students (past the first year of study) is awarded only to doctoral students to fund their ongoing degree work.

In most cases, Ph.D. students are offered fellowship support in various forms for the first four years of study. This support covers all registration costs (fees and non-resident tuition) and provides a stipend for living expenses (currenlty around $20,000 per year).

The University awards through competition a limited number of merit-based and diversity fellowships each year. See University Fellowships for further details.

Is financial aid available?
Federal and University loans are available to students through the Office of Financial Aid, 201 Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley; Berkeley, CA 94720-1960. See Financial Aid for further detials. U.S. federal financial aid is not available to students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States.

Student Employment

Do students work while attending the program?
A majority of our students work part-time while attending school, but normally they are working in academic appointments. The course load is sufficiently heavy that students, particularly during the first year, should not plan a very heavy work schedule.

By working in an academic appointment, all or part of the educational costs will be waived depending on the number of hours worked and if the student is a California resident or non-California resident. Not that Non-resident tuition is not waived for master’s students by working in an academic appointment, only Ph.D. students. You would also receive an hourly wage by working in an academic appointment. See Academic Appointments for further details.

Note all F-1 and J-1 international students enrolled in a full-time degree program who are sponsored by UC Berkeley may hold an academic appointment.

What are academic appointments?
The following positions are considered 'academic appointments' and are often available to graduate students enrolled at Berkeley:

  • Graduate Student Researcher: Performs research under the direction of a faculty member.
  • Tutor: provides tutorial services to individuals or groups of students under the direct supervision of a regular faculty member. I School faculty sometimes hire qualified graduate student tutors to provide lab assistance for I School courses.
  • Reader: Performs duties related to grading of papers and examinations, but are not assigned teaching duties.
  • Graduate Student Instructor: Serves as an apprentice teacher under the supervision of a regular faculty member, usually in the instruction of lower division undergraduate courses. After advancement to candidacy for the doctoral degree, a GSI may with permission teach an upper division graduate course. Graduate students are not permitted to teach other graduate students.

The Graduate Division determines the requirements for qualifications and working conditions for all graduate student appointments. For further details, please visit the Graduate Division's Appointment Office website.

How do students secure academic appointments?
Faculty members will make individual arrangements with qualified and eligible students depending on their needs for research and teaching assistance. Opportunities are highly dependent on faculty need, and it is difficult to predict the number and kinds of jobs that will be available in a given academic year. The following website provides a helpful list of Instructor, Reader, and Tutor positions normally available each year. There is no equivalent website for Researcher positions on campus.