andersonMSU history graduate students are eligible to receive financial support through internal and external funding. 

Internal Funding

Internal funding through MSU comes in two forms:  teaching assistantships (GTA positions) and research assistantships (GRA positions)

GTA positions involve working with a faculty member and 1-2 other students to run a 100-level history course at MSU such as American History I or Introduction to Latin American History.  GTAs are eligible for a tuition waver of up to 12 credits and a stipend (check with Graduate School for the current level).

GRA positions involve working with a faculty member on a grant-funded research project.  For example, GRAs have helped faculty conduct historical research on behalf of Yellowstone National Park and Devil’s Tower National Park.  GRAs are eligible for a tuition waver of up to 6 credits and a stipend (check with grant PI on current level).

*Note that a student does not need in-state residency to receive a full tuition waiver for a GTA or GRA position.

Eligibility for Internal Funding:   

Highly qualified PhD students will be offered multi-year funding packages (including GTA and/or GRA-ships) as part of their admissions letter. 

A small number of highly qualified MA applicants will be offered funding packages (including GTA and/or GRA-ships) as part of their admissions letter.  

Once per semester, the department issues a call for GTA and GRA applications.  Depending on the number of positions available, additional PhD and MA students are hired on a semester-to-semester basis.  MA students who come into the program without a funding guarantee are typically successful in receiving 1 or 2 semesters of GTA or GRA positions based on this application process.  To ensure that their finances are covered, we recommend that students explore other campus and Bozeman-area employment options before arriving on campus.

External Funding

External funding refers to financial support from sources outside of the department. 

Funding from MSU

Many history students receive external funding from key centers on MSU campus, including the Doig Center and the Montana Institute on Ecosystems.

MSU's Graduate School also offers funding opportunities including Student Travel Funding.  

Funding beyond MSU

Graduate students have also been successful in securing external funding through local, state, and national agencies and private foundations.  Examples of external funding sources include the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, the Forest History Society, the Bibliographical Society of America, and the Montana Historical Society.  

Other notable external funding opportunities:

AAUW Fellowships support women scholars completing doctoral dissertations, conducting postdoctoral research, or finishing research for publication. Recipients must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Approximately sixty predoctoral fellowships awarded in a national competition administered by the National Academies on behalf of the Ford Foundation.

The Franklin Jameson Fellowship in American History is offered annually by the Library of Congress and the American Historical Association to support significant scholarly research for one semester in the collections of the Library of Congress by scholars at an early stage in their careers in history. The fellowship is named in honor of J. Franklin Jameson, a founder of the Association, longtime managing editor of the American Historical Review, formerly Chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and the first incumbent of the Library's Chair of American History. It is designed to assist scholars early in their careers.

ACLS invites applications for the sixth annual competition for the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships, which support a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. The program encourages timely completion of the Ph.D.

For graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in the fields of science, including the history of science, international relations, and the social sciences. The NSF thirty-six month fellowships include tuition, fees, and a stipend. United States citizens or permanent residents in their fourth-year of college, first year of graduate school, recent college graduates, or students in joint B.A./M.A. programs are eligible, but applicants who have earned any medical degrees are not.

Additional information about GTAs and GRAs at MSU is available at The Graduate School's Graduate Appointments page.