Graduate Student Scholarships and Awards

Students wishing to pursue a master’s degree at Virginia Tech are eligible for funding support from the program. Each year the program awards graduate assistantships with tuition waivers to most graduate students. These assistantships offer students pre-professional training in historical pedagogy or historical research as they support the work of individual faculty members. Students interested in careers in library or archival administration should ask to be considered for a Graduate Assistantship in Special Collections at Virginia Tech’s Newman Library.  

• Duration of funding: We normally offer 2 years of assistantships for funded M.A students. Contracts are for one year, with renewal depending on progress in the degree program and satisfactory performance of assistantship duties.
• Benefits of assistantships: stipend, tuition waiver, health insurance program
• Applying for funding: A question on the Graduate School application for graduate admission asks whether you want to be considered for a teaching assistantship. If you check yes, you will respond to additional questions and be added to our list of candidates. All new positions begin in the fall semester. Please note that you do not need to submit a separate application to be considered for Graduate Assistantships.
• Deadline to apply: February 1

The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies (VCCWS) Graduate Scholarship awards $5,000 annually, renewable for a second year. 

• This scholarship supports research interests in any aspect of the American Civil War era, roughly 1840s-1880s. 
• Candidates for these scholarships may pursue a wide variety of research approaches (including social, political, cultural, military, or economic history) and topics (including—but not limited to—race, slavery, gender, memory and memorialization, violence, political protest, science and medicine, transformations in everyday life, industrialization).
• Recipients of this scholarship are also eligible to hold graduate assistantships

To be considered for this scholarship, please indicate your interest in the scholarship in your statement of purpose in the graduate school application.

These three awards are given out every spring semester before graduation. Each award includes a certificate and small prize but does not include a monetary gift. 

The Outstanding Master’s Thesis Award honors a student whose thesis best represents the department’s commitment to research excellence and scholarly originality. The thesis must have been completed during the previous academic year. The chair of the student’s thesis committee usually makes the nomination, but any committee member may do so.  

The Exemplary Graduate Student Assistant Award recognizes the contributions of graduate students in their role as graduate assistants. Graduate assistants support professors, undergraduate students, and the department in many ways: grading, tutoring students, running review sessions, teaching sections, assisting professors with research, editing the undergraduate journal, and supporting faculty and department outreach activities. The award honors one graduate assistant each year whose work in the current academic year exemplifies the highest level of professional dedication to these responsibilities. Any faculty member may submit a nomination. Nominations should focus on the specific contributions of the graduate assistant.

The Award for Excellence in Public History Practice recognizes exemplary accomplishments in the practice of public history as demonstrated through leadership in campus projects, contributions to the department’s outreach mission, and/or excellence in the internship experience. Any faculty member may nominate a student by submitting a letter, outlining the student’s contributions to public history.