Graduate Program

Please note: the figures quoted below reflect information available at the time this document was prepared. The information provided below is not meant to be accurate and should be taken only as an indication of the actual figures.

What Are My Chances For Admission And/Or Financial Aid?

It will depend on how each applicant’s record compares with those of many other applicants. It is therefore impossible to estimate an individual’s chances until all applications have been received and examined.

Estimated Cost Per Year For International Students

For an international student the estimated cost per year at UC Davis is $52,525. This sum covers fees, tuition (see detailed information below) and living expenses.

The most common kind of financial assistance a new international student is likely to receive is a Teaching Assistantship ("TAship"). However, since TAships do not provide full funding, international students offered a TAship still have to incur costs of $19,878.02 per year: see below).

Graduate Student Fees

All graduate students (international and domestic) must pay "Graduate Student Fees". Per Quarter, the Fees are:

Non-Resident Tuition Fee

In addition to Graduate Student Fees, international students (and domestic students who are not California residents) must pay the "Non-Resident Tuition Fee":

(Non-Resident Tuition Fees are reduced for Teaching Assistants; see further information below.)

Total Fees Per Year For International Students

Teaching Assistantships

The Teaching Assistant salary for the 2011-2012 academic year is $17,308.98. It is paid monthly in 9 equal installments beginning November 1 ($1,923.22 per month). (Since each Quarter is 3 months, there are 3 payments per Quarter)

Teaching Assistants are entitled to reduced Graduate Student Fees (see fee information below). In addition, international students (and domestic students who are not California residents) who are offered a TAship for the entire academic year at 50% time, are entitled to some funding towards the cost of moving to California (this amount varies, depending on mileage). This funding will be paid after arrival in Davis, sometime after the Fall Quarter begins. New student TA's moving to Davis from outside the U.S. usually receive an offer of about $440 towards the cost of moving to California.

Usually about 50% of the new graduate students each year are offered a TAship.

TAship offers to International students whose mother tongue is not English are conditional on the student's being sufficiently proficient in English. Proficiency is ascertained according to the following rules.

In accordance with University policy, international students whose mother tongue is not English are required to take the SPEAK test (administered by UCDavis) as soon as they arrive in Davis. A score of 50 is considered to be the minimum acceptable (in the past, students who scored less than 50 encountered serious communication problems and in some cases their TAship had to be revoked). In addition, the following applies. (1) Every international student who intends to be a TA, irrespective of his/her SPEAK test score, has to give a 15 minute presentation in the presence of the Graduate Studies Committee chair and any students and faculty who might wish to attend. (2) If the TAship in question is for Winter or Spring, the presentation will take place in the Fall Quarter during a meeting of Ecn 397. If the TAship is for Fall Quarter and the student being considered is not a newly admitted student, then the presentation will take place in the preceding Spring Quarter. If the TAship is for Fall Quarter and the student being considered is a newly admitted student, the presentation will take place at the time when Math Camp begins. (3) After the presentation the GSC chair will consult with those who attended and make a recommendation to the Chair of the Department. If the recommendation is that the student not be appointed as a TA until he/she can demonstrate improved communication abilities, the student can appeal to the Department Chair. In this case the Department Chair will arrange for another presentation by the student, attended by the Chair and at least one other faculty member and at least one student. This second presentation will take place within 10 days of the first presentation. After the second presentation the Department Chair will make a decision in consultation with those who attended.

Reduced "Graduate Student Fees" For Teaching Assistants

Teaching Assistants are entitled to a discount ("partial fee remission") on Graduate Student Fees of $14,490 per year ($4,830 per quarter)

Total Fees per Year for International Students

Non-Resident Tuition Fellowships

All “non-resident” applicants (international applicants and domestic Non-California residents) will be automatically considered “as if” they had applied for a Nonresident Tuition Fellowship (NRTF), so there is no need to submit a fellowship application for this kind of fellowship. NRTF’s usually provide "partial" funding towards the cost of the Nonresident Tuition fee. NRTF’s and Teaching Assistantships (TAships) are the most common kinds of financial aid that applicants are likely to receive. However, they are offered to only a few of the best applicants each year (approximately 10 – 12), and do not provide full financial aid. Given the present level of funding provided to the Economics Department, full financial support for international students is virtually impossible.

Fellowships

The University offers several merit based fellowships and scholarships. These are highly competitive and the Department must choose and nominate at most 4 applicants for each of these fellowships; the successful applicants are then chosen through a campuswide competition. Historically, the Department has received fewer than one fellowship per year. Consequently, only those applicants with a GPA greater than 3.7 and GRE scores exceeding the 85th percentile in both Verbal and Quantitative exams should apply. For more information about these fellowships see the online admission application at http://apply.embark.com/grad/ucdavis.

Deadline: All application materials must be received by December 15, 2011. (The GRE must be taken no later than November 2011.

For these UC Davis Fellowships (not NRTF Fellowships as described above) SUBMIT ONLINE along with admission application.:

• Application for UC Davis Fellowship

When Admission and Financial Aid Decisions Will be Made

Admission and financial aid decisions about many international student applicants will probably not be made until sometime after March 1 because many applications are received and need to be compared, in order to admit the best applicants. The department can not predict exactly how soon decisions will be made, but applicants will be informed after decisions have been made.

Information for Admitted International Students About Filling Out a Required Form

The formal admission letter you receive from the Graduate Admissions Office will direct you to a Web site http://siss.ucdavis.edu/student_forms.htm  where you can find a “UC Davis Request for I-20 / DS-2019 Form”.   International students are required to fill that out and submit it, indicating that they can afford $52,525 for their first year at UC Davis, before the university will send them another  form (such as I-20) needed to order a visa to come to Davis ($52,525 is the estimated cost of the first year at UC Davis for international students).  See that Web site for full instructions and information.

If you have received a financial aid offer:

Indicate on the “UC Davis Request for I-20 / DS-2019 Form” that you have received the aid offer and send a xerox copy of your aid offer letter along with it when you mail it back to the university, to prove that you have been offered that amount of aid. Subtract the total amount of the aid offer from the $52,525 and also indicate on the form that you can afford to pay the remaining balance.  (Be careful to notice the "total amount" of your own aid offer, when you figure out the balance that you need to afford to pay (if your aid offer is for a different amount than shown in the example below, you will need to pay a different balance amount than that shown).   Also, if you received a multi-year TA Offer, be careful to only subtract the amounts of the aid offer that are for your first year.

Example:

If you have received an offer of a Teaching Assistantship ($17,308.98), plus the $14,490.00 discount of the Graduate Student Fees ("Partial TA Fee Remission), plus the $408 discount on Non-Resident Tuition Fees, plus $440 towards moving to California, your "total aid offer" from the university would be $32,646.98, so the "balance" of the required $52,525 that you would need to indicate on the fee statement that you can afford to pay on your own would be: $19,878.02 (= $52,525 - $32,646.98 = $19,878.02).

Further information about financial aid can be found on the Web in the section about Admission Information at http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/graduates_admission.cfm.

Also, there are some answers to common questions about financial aid on the Web in the FAQ section (Answers to Frequently Asked Questions) at http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/pdfs/FAQ_04_1.pdf.