Graduate Student Funding

After admission to the program, the Department provides first year students with various fellowships and/or research assistanceships. After the first year, students are provided with funding from a variety of sources including university fellowships, traineeships, teaching and research assistanceships, and extramural fellowships. At UCLA, special sources of funding are designated for outstanding students from underrepresented minority groups. These include the Eugene Cota Robles Award as well as other Graduate Division special fellowships.

One powerful indicator of graduate student success is being recognized with funding in the form of extramural fellowships. Our students are routinely awarded the nation’s most prestigious fellowships available to doctoral students in psychology. In the period between 2000-2009, 59 of our students were awarded a National Science Foundation fellowship, 12 were awarded a Ford Foundation Minority Fellowship, and 8 were awarded a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. From 2005 to 2008, UCLA was first, or tied for first in the nation in the number of new NSF fellowships awarded to students in psychology departments.

Our students also have an excellent track record competing for funding through the National Institutes of Health to fund their predoctoral research training through the Ruth L. Kirschtein National Research Service Award (NRSA). Between 2000-2009, 40 doctoral students were funded with an NRSA award on the basis of their stellar research applications. These figures attest to the outstanding quality of our students and their research.

Graduate Quarterly feature: Dr. Grijalva (click for PDF)

Graduate Quarterly feature: Psychology of Getting Fellowships (click for PDF)

Underrepresented Graduate Students in Psychology

Underrepresented Graduate Students in Psychology (UGSP) is a group dedicated to supporting and advocating for psychology students from racial, linguistic, geographic, or socioeconomic backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in graduate education.