Funding

Grad school isn't free. Getting some sort of funding is necessary for you to survive and flourish, whether it's a long-term fellowship or a grant for one event.

GSA offers many opportunities for funding to assist in events for your department and for your own research.

• Department Fund - Attending GSA Assembly meetings gets you money to spend on your own department
  

• Orientation Fund - Apply for funds to train new students in the ways of your grad group
  

• Travel Awards - Assistance for attending conferences/colloquia
  

• Award for Excellence in Service to Graduate Students - highest GSA honor for one staff and one faculty member annually
  

• Special Projects Fund - Assembly approved funding for projects
  

• Organizations Fund - Money for clubs not covered by the Department Fund (This program was discontinued starting in the 2010-2011 school year)

For information on other funding opportunities click on this link URL: http://gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/ssupport/

Office of Graduate Studies, 250 Mrak Hall, University of California,Davis, CA 95616


Ph. No.: (530) 752-0650, Fax No.: (530) 752-6222

New legislation affects Grad Student Subsidized Loans:(Information from the UC Davis Graduate Financial Aid Office)

The new legislation will take effect July 1, 2012 and impact 2012-2013 awards, your loans for 2011-2012 will not be affected. Note the elimination of repayment incentives will have an impact on students as well. Here is a summary of the effects of the recent debt legislation on student aid programs, as provided by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA). There are many details to be worked out between now and then, but we’ll do our best to keep students informed.

Impact on Student Aid Funding (Information from NSAFAA http://www.nasfaa.org/)


• Pell Grants: While many programs faced cuts in this bill, the Pell Grant program was provided with additional mandatory funding for both FY 2012 and 2013. Specifically, the package provides an additional $10 billion in mandatory funds for Pell in FY 2012 and $7 billion for FY 2013, amounts that should come close to preserving a $5,550 maximum award. When the President released his budget in February, Pell faced a projected $20 billion shortfall for FY 2012. The elimination of the Year-Round Pell Grant in the final FY 2011 budget bill reduced this shortfall to $11 billion. Even with the additional mandatory funding provided in the debt reduction package, Pell will still face a $1.3 billion dollar shortfall for FY 2012.


• Interest Subsidy for Graduate Students: The Budget Control Act also eliminates the in-school interest subsidy for graduate and professional students beginning July 1, 2012, a provision that would save $18.1 billion from FY 2012-21, $8.2 billion of which is from FY 2012-16, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The legislative language clarifies that the subsidy elimination does not apply to students taking preparatory coursework and those in programs leading to teacher certification where the credential is awarded by the state instead of the institution.


• Direct Loan Repayment Incentives: Repayment incentives were also eliminated in the final package. The incentive for using automatic debit repayment provided borrowers with a 0.25 interest rate reduction and the up-front interest rebate incentive was equal to 0.5 percent of the loan amount and applied toward the 1 percent loan origination fee. For PLUS loans, the up-front interest rebate was 1.5 percent applied toward the 4 percent origination fee. Borrowers were able to keep the rebate if they made their first 12 payments on time. The language prohibits the Department of Education from authorizing or providing repayment incentives on new loans disbursed on or after July 1, 2012, except that an interest rate reduction may be provided to a borrower who agrees to automatically debited electronic payments. The CBO projects the elimination of the origination fee rebates would yield $3.6 billion from FY 2012-21.

Together, the elimination of the graduate and professional in-school interest subsidy and direct loan repayment incentives yield a savings of $21.6 billion. In total, $17 billion of that is being redirected into the Pell Grant program, with the remaining $4.6 going toward deficit reduction.


Contextually speaking, with the exception of the graduate student interest subsidies, student aid funding was largely shielded from cuts during this process. However, funding for student aid could be targeted for cuts once again during the second phase of this process when the joint congressional committee must come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings.

Publication Date: 8/2/2011

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