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We are here to help as you navigate your academic journey through graduate school. Below is an overview of the resources available to you at the various stages of your academic program.

Fellowships & Funding

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Graduate Financial Aid Office

The Yale Graduate School's Financial Aid Office is dedicated to assisting graduate students in navigating the complex financial aspects of their education, providing comprehensive guidance on fellowships, loans, and student account information.

Tax Information

While the university cannot legally provide tax advice, our tax information page provides a basic overview and guidance on how to get started.

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Dean's Emergency Fund

The Dean’s Emergency Fund enables terminal master’s and PhD students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to continue making academic progress despite unanticipated, extreme financial hardships that cannot be resolved through fellowships, loans, or personal resources. The maximum award for eligible requests is $2,000.

Coursework

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Registration Information and Dates

https://registration.yale.edu/

Students must register every term in which they are enrolled in the Graduate School. Registration for a given term takes place the semester prior, and so it's important to stay on top of your academic plan. The University Registrar's Office oversees the systems that students use to register. Instructions about how to use those systems and the dates during which registration occurs can be found on their registration website.

Academic Calendar

The Graduate School's academic calendar lists important dates and deadlines related to coursework, registration, financial processes, and milestone events such as graduation.

Yale Course Search

https://courses.yale.edu/

Yale Course Search is an online course catalogue, where you will find current and past listings of Graduate School courses across our departments and programs.

Canvas

https://canvas.yale.edu/

Canvas is Yale's learning management system for all courses. You'll find syllabi, assignments, grades, and additional resources for your courses on this platform.

Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/

The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning offers robust resources to support graduate student professional development, focused particularly on teaching and writing.

Student Accessibility Services (SAS)

https://sas.yale.edu/students

Student Accessibility Services (SAS) works with Yale students with acute or ongoing disabilities to provide appropriate accommodations, auxiliary aids, and services through an interactive process. The Graduate School's liaison in SAS is Jordan Colbert.

Registration Status

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Leaves of Absence

The Graduate School offers leaves of absence for students who wish to pause their studies temporarily. There are three categories of leave: medical leave of absence, personal leave of absence, and parental leave of absence.

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In Absentia Registration

You should register in absentia if you are a PhD student who will be living outside the New Haven area in order to conduct full-time dissertation research, full-time field work, or full-time study at another academic institution.

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Parental Relief for PhD Students

The Graduate School's relief policy assists PhD students when they become parents, enabling them to modify their academic responsibilities in the semester during or following the birth or adoption of a child.

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Extended Registration Beyond Year 6

Registration beyond year 6 is not automatic and must be approved. Special registration is required to request extended registration into year 7 or–in extremely rare circumstances–year 8.

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Non-Cumulative Registration

Non-cumulative registration allows you to pause your academic clock in order to acquire an academic or methodological skill that is essential for your degree requirements or dissertation research.

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Dissertation Completion Status

If you are a PhD candidate who wishes to remain registered after using your available extended registration and/or would like to undertake full-time employment, you can do so by electing Dissertation Completion Status.

Teaching

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Teaching Fellow Program

Learning to teach is an essential component of academic training and professional development.

Poorvu Center: Teaching Development and Initiatives

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/graduate-students/about-teaching-development-graduate-and-professional-school-students

The Teaching Development and Initiatives team provides opportunities for you to develop your pedagogical skills while you're here at Yale and as you prepare to teach at other institutions. You can earn a certificate that affirms your expertise, join in community with other graduate teachers, and compete for an opportunity to develop your own course alongside a faculty member. PhD students are also eligible to become McDougal Graduate Teaching Fellows, in which position you can further develop your teaching by facilitating workshops for your fellow graduate students and postdocs.

Associates in Teaching Program

https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Associates-in-Teaching-Program

Associates in Teaching are graduate students who design and teach courses in full collaboration with a Yale faculty member. Graduate students and their faculty partners apply each spring to co-teach a course in the following academic year. The program is designed to give select graduate students the opportunity to gain the full range of experience in college teaching, with the added benefit that comes from close collaboration with a Yale faculty member.

Advising & Mentoring

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GSAS Sample Mentoring Agreement

PDF — 28.38 KB

Mentoring agreements (sometimes referred to as “compacts”) are common in the sciences as a tool to guide and define collaboration between faculty, graduate students, and/or postdocs in a lab setting. This template mentoring agreement has been adapted from the American Association of Medical Colleges and the Advising Agreement between Graduate Students and Faculty at Brown University.

Meals for Mentoring

The Graduate School’s "Meals for Mentoring" program is a chance for PhD students and their mentors to talk about research, coursework, career goals, and personal and professional development over a free lunch.

Transitions: First-Year Focus Program

Transitions is an optional, year-long program for first-year graduate students, sponsored by the Office for Graduate Student Development and Diversity, to provide incoming students with the skills, connections, and community that will let them flourish at Yale.

Interdisciplinary Academic Opportunities

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Certificates

The Graduate School offers a number certificate programs through which you can gain secondary competency in a related field while pursuing your PhD. There are two types of certificates: academic program certificates and certificates in training.

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Exchange Programs

The Graduate School offers domestic and international exchange opportunities for PhD students. On an exchange, you can master course content in another language, learn new methodologies to inform your dissertation, visit library archives and collections to expand your research, and develop your professional network with fellow scholars in the US and abroad.

Combined PhD Programs

The Graduate School offers opportunities to pursue interdisciplinary fields of study through our formal combined PhD programs. In addition, students may also request to create an ad hoc combined program in consultation with their department or program.

Research & Conference Funding

PhD Student Summer Funding Resources

The Graduate School offers a number of summer funding awards to support academic activities related to PhD degree requirements. These include competitive research travel fellowships and tuition grants for enrollment in GSAS-sponsored language courses offered in Yale Summer Session.

Conference Travel Fellowship (CTF)

https://gsa.yale.edu/ctf

By partnering with the MacMillan Center and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, graduate students with representatives in the Graduate Student Assembly are eligible for annual conference travel funding of up to $800.

Yale Student Grants Database

https://yale.communityforce.com/Funds/Search.aspx

The Student Grants Database allows you to search for any Yale funding and external fellowships that have a campus application process.

Dean's Colloquium and Symposium Fund

If you are interested in leading an academic event, such as a workshop or conference, the Dean's Colloquium and Symposium Fund provides financial support for graduate student-led events

MacMillan Center International Conference Travel Grants

https://bit.ly/3jf3htC

PhD students may apply for up to $800 to support conference travel to recognized professional domestic or international conferences and academic meetings as a presenter (session chair or discussant). To qualify, your presentation must be on an international topic. The grant will supplement any funds that you may receive from your home department or from the conference, if it provides travel subsidies. The grant is available to PhD students in programs in the Humanities and the Social Sciences, and to select PhD programs in the professional schools that have a humanities or a social sciences dimension.