Tuition, Funding & Support

Cost of Attendance

Visit the Rack­ham Grad­u­ate School web­site for detailed, up-to-date infor­ma­tion on cost of atten­dance, fund­ing resources, finan­cial plan­ning, and cost of liv­ing for grad­u­ate stu­dents at the Uni­ver­sity of Michigan.

Stamps Fund­ing

The Stamps School offers gen­er­ous finan­cial sup­port to grad­u­ate stu­dents. Finan­cial awards are held through­out both years of study and range from stipends and dis­cre­tionary funds that off­set stu­dio expenses and enable focused cre­ative work/​research to teaching/​research assist­ant­ships and full tuition waivers. Teach­ing, staff, and research assist­ant­ships pro­vide valu­able pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ence, and post-grad­u­ate sup­port expe­dites the tran­si­tion from the aca­d­e­mic envi­ron­ment to pro­fes­sional practice. 

• 75% Tuition Assis­tance for all Stamps Grad­u­ate stu­dents in good aca­d­e­mic standing
• Grad­u­ate Assist­ant­ship Posi­tions with Stipends & Health Care Ben­e­fits: Stu­dents have access to numer­ous teach­ing, staff, and research assist­ant­ships that pro­vide valu­able pro­fes­sional experience.
• MDes/​MFA Dis­cre­tionary Fund­ing: Grad­u­ate stu­dents may receive $2,000 per year that they enroll in the Stamps School to spend at their dis­cre­tion towards their edu­ca­tional projects.
• Sum­mer Fieldwork/​International Project Fund­ing: The School pro­vides up to $4,500 for all grad­u­ate stu­dents who are in good aca­d­e­mic stand­ing to con­duct sum­mer field­work / inter­na­tional project. 
• Smucker-Wagstaff Project Grant: The Smucker-Wagstaff Project Grant was estab­lished in 2007 to help Stamps grad­u­ate stu­dents achieve excel­lence by sup­port­ing stu­dents who need assis­tance to carry out research for their cre­ative work that advances their progress toward their degree. Stu­dents may apply for one award each year with a max­i­mum amount of $3000.

Rack­ham and Uni­ver­sity Pro­gram Funding

Addi­tional fel­low­ships, grants, and schol­ar­ships are also avail­able through the Rack­ham Grad­u­ate School.

• The Rack­ham Con­fer­ence Travel Grant pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for Rack­ham grad­u­ate stu­dents to present papers and/​or posters at aca­d­e­mic con­fer­ences. Stu­dents may apply once per fis­cal year. Rack­ham administered.
• The Rack­ham Grad­u­ate Stu­dent Research Grant is designed to sup­port Rack­ham grad­u­ate stu­dents who need assis­tance to carry out research that advances their progress toward their degree. Rack­ham administered.
• The Rack­ham Inter­na­tional Stu­dent Fel­low­ship assists out­stand­ing inter­na­tional stu­dents, par­tic­u­larly those who may be inel­i­gi­ble for other kinds of sup­port because of cit­i­zen­ship. Rack­ham administered.
• Rack­ham Non-Tra­di­tional Fel­low­ships assist master’s stu­dents who return to grad­u­ate school after an extended absence. Rack­ham administered.
• Cen­ter for the Edu­ca­tion for Women schol­ar­ships are avail­able to assist stu­dents who have expe­ri­enced a lapse in edu­ca­tion after grad­u­at­ing from high school of at least 48 con­sec­u­tive or non-con­sec­u­tive months (not count­ing inter­rup­tions of less than 8 months).
• Area Stud­ies Cen­ters: The uni­ver­sity is home to a num­ber of pro­grams, insti­tutes and cen­ters that pro­vide spe­cial­ized fund­ing to sup­port research and travel. An exam­ple is the Inter­na­tional Insti­tute, with 17 area stud­ies cen­ters based on regions around the world
  

Post-Grad­u­ate Support

Stamps Grad­u­ate Pro­grams sup­port a vari­ety of schol­ar­ships, pre­sen­ta­tions at con­fer­ences, res­i­den­cies, indi­vid­u­ally funded projects and post-grad­u­ate opportunities.

Recent grad­u­ate stu­dents are eli­gi­ble to apply for fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties up to five years after grad­u­a­tion. Post-grad­u­ate sup­port is not an oblig­a­tion of Stamps grad­u­ate pro­grams, it is merit based fund­ing that is reviewed by the Asso­ciate Dean’s office and grad­u­ate pro­gram direc­tors. Funds are dis­bursed as reimbursement.

MDes Post-Grad­u­ate Opportunities

The Stamps MDes pro­gram will help fund con­fer­ence par­tic­i­pa­tion, exhi­bi­tions and projects on a case by case basis.

MFA Post-Grad­u­ate Opportunities

The Stamps MFA pro­gram will help fund exhi­bi­tions, res­i­den­cies, and projects on a case by case basis.

Par­tial fund­ing is avail­able for a wide range of fel­low­ships and res­i­den­cies, includ­ing sup­port for the fol­low­ing res­i­dency pro­grams with which Stamps has an ongo­ing agreement:

• The Dedalus Foun­da­tion MFA Fel­low­ship in Paint­ing and Sculp­ture is awarded annu­ally to final-year stu­dents who are grad­u­at­ing from an MFA degree pro­gram in the United States. Each fel­low­ship car­ries a stipend of $25,000 for the fel­low­ship year. The Dedalus Foun­da­tion pro­vides all the fund­ing, the Stamps School does not match or finan­cially sup­port the fel­low­ship. Eli­gi­bil­ity: Can­di­dacy for the fel­low­ship is by nom­i­na­tion only. Each fall, the MFA Pro­gram selects two can­di­dates from our MFA pro­grams in paint­ing and sculpture.
• The Skowhe­gan School of Paint­ing and Sculp­ture has been a trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence for artists. It is designed to give emerg­ing artists the oppor­tu­nity to work inde­pen­dently and to build a strong and sup­port­ive com­mu­nity of artists through an expe­ri­ence extend­ing far beyond the bor­ders of its cam­pus. The Stamps MFA Pro­gram par­tic­i­pates in Skowhe­gan’s Match­ing Fel­low­ship pro­gram and can award full schol­ar­ships for one suc­cess­ful appli­cant. Eli­gi­bil­ity: First and sec­ond year MFA stu­dents work­ing in paint­ing and sculp­ture are eli­gi­ble to par­tic­i­pate. Inter­ested stu­dents apply directly through Skowhegan.
• The Head­lands, Cal­i­for­nia Artist in Res­i­dence (AIR) pro­gram awards fully spon­sored res­i­den­cies to approx­i­mately 45 local, national, and inter­na­tional artists each year. Res­i­den­cies of four to eight weeks include stu­dio space, chef-pre­pared meals, com­fort­able hous­ing, and stipends for travel and liv­ing expenses.
• The Ver­mont Stu­dio Cen­ter is the largest inter­na­tional res­i­dency pro­gram in the US, host­ing more than 50 visual artists and writ­ers each month from across the coun­try and around the world.
• Ander­son Ranch’s Artists in Res­i­dence Pro­gram fos­ters cre­ative and intel­lec­tual growth for emerg­ing and estab­lished visual artists. Res­i­dents have access to world-class facil­i­ties at the Ranch and 10 weeks of unin­ter­rupted stu­dio time.