Financial Resources

Financial Resources Beyond Department Funding

In addition to Department funding, below are financial resources available to graduate students. The information is not an exhaustive list of funding opportunities and financial resources. The Graduate Advisor also forwards funding and employment calls to current graduate students.

Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Even if you don’t plan on borrowing federal loans as a graduate student, it is recommend to file a FAFSA every year if eligible. The FAFSA determines if a graduate student is eligible for the graduate work-study program. In addition, the FAFSA confirmation page is the most accepted form of proving financial need for a number of fellowship opportunities based on need.

Conference Travel Support

The UCLA Division of Graduate Education offers a $1,000 total reimbursement to students who are within their first seven years of doctoral study. These funds are to encourage students to present their work and network at conferences in their field, to support travel associated with off-campus research and to enable students to take advantage of off-campus professional development opportunities. For more information and the application, please see their website.

Support from the Department is available for current students presenting at a conference. The application for this support can be found on the Documents & Forms page.

UCLA Division of Graduate Education Opportunities & Resources

The UCLA Division of Graduate Education offers a searchable database, GRAPES, of private and publicly funded awards, grants, and fellowships of interest to prospective and current graduate students, students working on a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, and postdoctoral scholars. The Division of Graduate Education has also created a fellowship directory listing starting points of where to find fellowships and students can meet with Graduate Peer Mentors (GPM) for extramural fellowships

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship

Full information regarding FLAS opportunities at UCLA is available on the Division of Graduate Education’s website.

The FLAS fellowship is intended for language study at the intermediate and advanced level.  Applications to fund beginning-level language study will only be considered in extraordinary cases.  If you plan to apply for a FLAS to fund beginning-level language study, please consult the relevant Center during the application process.

Currently approved languages include, for East Asia: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean; for Latin America: Nahuatl, Portuguese, Quechua and Advanced Spanish (additional languages, such as Haitian Creole and Maya, may be eligible for summer study with prior approval from the US Department of Education); for Middle East: Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish; and for Southeast Asia: Indonesian, Filipino/Tagalog, Khmer, Thai, and Vietnamese (additional languages may be eligible with prior approval from the US Department of Education).

Other sources and opportunities

Research Grant Administration

Current students who wish to submit a research grant to the federal government, private foundations, or UC seed grants which require a University signatory authority must contact the Department’s Accounting and Personnel Analyst, to begin the application process.

The Graduate Writing Center periodically holds workshops on how to prepare and write federal grant proposals for current students. Information about these workshops will be sent by the Graduate Advisor as they are announced.

UCLA Graduate Writing Center Fellowship and Grant Archive Project

Please visit this page to request access for particular fellowships from UCLA’s Graduate Writing Center (GWC). These resources include basic information, links, and videos pertaining to major extramural fellowships as well as samples of successful application essays available for view. The materials are managed by the GWC and made available to UCLA graduate students who request access.

To request access, follow the link above select from a handful of links that will direct you to private Google forms for a major fellowship or group of fellowships of interest. Please note that access is given for the current academic year. If you need access again in a later year, you may need to request it again.

This resource is only available to current students.

UCLA Financial Wellness Program

The mission of UCLA’s Financial Wellness Program is to empower all Bruins to confidently navigate their finances in a way that supports their overall well-being. This program fosters financial literacy skills through workshops, coaching and online educational efforts. Overall, the program centralizes and advocates for student economic support services on campus.

Financial Crisis

  • Current students in financial crisis should contact the Economic Crisis Response Team (ECRT). The ECRT can take a comprehensive approach to your situation and can help you determine as many options as possible.
  • The Department may have limited emergency funding for current graduate students. Please contact the Graduate Advisor if you are in need of emergency funds.
  • Interest-free short-term loans for current students are available through the Loan Services Office.