Financial support comes in the form of fellowships or teaching positions.

Fellowships

Multi-year University sponsored fellowships are awarded through an annual campus wide competition administered by the Graduate Fellowship Office. Departments select nominees for fellowships from the prospective applicant pool. Nominations will be submitted for the following fellowships: Berkeley Fellowship, Chancellors Opportunity, Eugene Cota Robles, University Predoctoral Humanities, Regents Intern, GOP, and FLAS.

Each year the department is given a block grant from the Graduate Division to award fellowships to its students. Such grants may take the form of fee offset grants, tuition grants, stipends, or a combination of any or all. Students are encouraged to apply. Please complete the fellowship section included with the application for graduate study.

The GOP Fellowship is a need-based fellowship for under-represented individuals who have shown academic achievement despite social, economic challenges, or educational obstacles. The Graduate and Professional Unit (GPU) of the Financial Aid Office administers three need-based programs for UC Berkeley students. The Federal Student Direct Loan Program, Federal Work Study Program and the UC Parent Grant Program, which offers a need-based grant for Berkeley graduate students with dependent children.

It is the student's responsibility to identify appropriate sources of support and meet all deadlines. A red binder with fellowship information and new postings is kept in the German library for review. All students applying for University Fellowships or Financial Aid are required to complete the FAFSA form (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) available online at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Graduate students may apply for need-based loans and work-study through the Graduate Financial Aid Office located at 201 Sproul Hall. Under federal guidelines all graduate students are considered independent. In order to receive aid, students must also be enrolled and be making satisfactory academic progress toward their degree.

Teaching Positions

Graduate Student Instructors (GSI's) teach one section per semester of a German language class- you usually begin with German 1. (A student who is on fellowship is allowed to teach only one semester per year while on fellowship.) Most classes meet fifty minutes per day, five days a week.

Graduate Student Instructorships fall into two categories, with higher salaries from step to step. Normal periods of service: step 1, one year; step 2, two years; step 3 three years. Appointment to step 4 is normally reserved for those students with four years of teaching experience, who have been advanced to candidacy for the doctorate, who have a record of outstanding college teaching, who have a record of scholarly achievement (papers presented/published) who have earned a minimum GPA of 3.4, and who will have a teaching assignment involving exceptional responsibility. The guaranteed GSIship for entering BA students is normally limited to four years, and entering MA students are normally accorded only three years of teaching.

Beyond daily classroom teaching, GSI duties include the following:

1. Attend regularly the weekly group meetings of all instructors and the course coordinator.
2. Develop your own lesson plans in accordance with the course syllabus distributed by the coordinator.
3. Share with your group whatever supplementary materials you develop for effective classroom teaching (visuals, grammar handouts, supplementary readings, charts, group tasks, etc.).
4. Design portions of the quizzes and the finals.
5. Administer, grade and return students' work (homework and tests) in a timely manner.
6. Follow the grading criteria agreed upon by your group.
7. Attend a "post-mortem" meeting of your group at the end of the semester.
8. Read carefully the evaluations submitted by your students after you have submitted their final grades. These evaluations constitute valuable feedback on your performance as a teacher.

Evaluation of your effectiveness as a teacher will be based not only upon your classroom performance (as assessed by the Faculty and coordinator visits), but also upon your fulfillment of the obligations listed above. Your reappointment as a GSI will depend upon your fulfilling the totality of your obligations. Finally, GSIs keep informed about new developments in foreign language teaching and learning by attending the teacher development seminars, workshops, lectures planned by the Director of the Language Program.

Click here for further information on teaching and research opportunities and Awards and Fellowships.