Funding & Scholarships | Department of Sociology

Funding & Scholarships

Tuition and Fees
For the academic year 2022-2023, the cost of graduate in-state tuition and fees for full-time graduate students (9 credit hours) at UNT is $4,226.08.
The cost of living in Denton and the greater Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is very favorable compared to other US metropolitan areas.

Financial Aid
Teaching Assistantships
Require up to 20 hours per week of assisting sociology department professors and instructors. TA positions comes with up to 9 hours of paid tuition in both the fall and spring semesters. In order to qualify for this tuition benefit, a student must be in good academic standing and be a full-time graduate student (9 credit hours). Students are considered for a renewal of this position if they are enrolled in the MA-PhD pass-through program based on funding availability, teaching assistant performance, and satisfactory progress in the program.

Teaching Fellowships
Requires graduate students to teach either two courses independently each semester or teach one course as an instructor and serve as a teaching assistant in another course. The Graduate Director and/or Department Chair works with students on their specific work assignments based on students' research and teaching interests and the department's teaching needs. There is an increase in the stipend for ABD students. TF positions come with up to 9 hours paid tuition in both the fall and spring semesters. In order to qualify for this tuition benefit a student must be in good academic standing and be a full-time graduate student (9 credit hours), unless they are ABD (All-But-Dissertation) status or have a Course Load Exemption (CLE). Students are considered for a renewal of this position if they are enrolled in the MA-PhD pass-through program based on funding availability, teaching assistant performance, and satisfactory progress in the program.

Students must apply/reapply to be considered for TA/TF funding each academic year. You may access the form here:
Graduate Student TA/TF Funding Request (due 4/1 every year in the program)

Summer Funding
Limited funding is available. There are some Teaching Assistant (TA) positions available in the five-week summer sessions and a few Teaching Fellow (TF) positions for doctoral students. These positions pay between $2500 - $2800 for one summer term. International students with F-1 student visas are generally not permitted to work off campus in the summer. International applicants with questions about work and funding should visit international.unt.edu.

Thesis and Dissertation Small Research Grants
The Department supports students who have research expenses related to their thesis and dissertation projects, such as travel costs related to interviewing study participants. Please complete the Thesis and Dissertation Small Research Grant form and either return a hard copy of the form to the Department of Sociology or scan the completed form and email it to sociology@unt.edu and indicate in the subject line that you are attaching a thesis and dissertation research grant request.

Thesis and Dissertation Small Research Grant application (pdf)
Thesis and Dissertation Small Research Grant application (docx)

Travel
The Department encourages students to present their work at major professional conferences. Departmental funds are available for travel each year with the following limits. Note that matching travel funds are often available from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies.

  • Terminal masters students are eligible for a total of one conference trip while in the program.
  • Pass-through and PhD-only students are eligible for one conference trip per year while in the program, at a cost of up to $1000 from the department.

Access the travel funding application form below and submit it to the front desk for approval.
Travel Funding Request

Scholarships
A $1,000 Academic Achievement Scholarship that includes a waiver for out-of-state tuition costs is available for incoming PhD students. However, the scholarship and waiver are not granted automatically. Instead admitted students must apply for the scholarship at tsgs.unt.edu/graduatelife/AAS.

There are several other departmental scholarships for which students may apply. The general scholarship application can be used to apply for all graduate scholarships, and applicants should include their academic CV/resume. The general application is due February 15 to sociology@unt.edu. Please use the subject line "Graduate Scholarship Application" in your email application. Contact the department at 940-565-2296 for more information.

Sociology Scholarship General Application (pdf)
Sociology Scholarship General Application (docx)

Graduate Scholarships

Note: Applicants to the below scholarships must submit both the Sociology Scholarship General Application and the supplemental application forms.

If you are a returning Peace Corps graduate student, you may be eligible for the Returned Peace Corp Volunteer Scholarship. Please contact sociology@unt.edu for application details.