Financial Aid

Financial assistance is available through a number of sources.

Assistantships

The department has a limited number of graduate and teaching assistantships to offer graduate students. These assistantships are generally available after the first semester in the graduate program, though some awards are made to incoming students each year. Assistantships are dependent on departmental need. Appointments are usually .25 FTE (10 hrs per wk), with a tuition waiver of six credit hours and a monthly stipend (see link for this semester's salaries). Appointments are made on a semester basis. Normally, the TA/GA applications are due by April 15th for the Fall semester. Applicants will be offered the opportunity to apply for assistantships AFTER admission to the program. You cannot apply for an assistantship until you have been accepted into the graduate program.

TAships involve teaching an introductory course in your area, such as Drawing I, or Introduction to Photography. GAships involve assisting a professor with an undergraduate course in your area, such as 2D design, Art History 101, or Advanced Electronic Arts. Students generally receive assistantships from the area to which they are admitted (Painting/Drawing, Photography, Sculpture/Ceramics, Printmaking, Arts & Ecology, or Electronic Arts). Not every area has enough assistantships to support every student. Assistantships are competitively awarded, based on area need, knowledge of subject area, academic performance, progress toward degree, and satisfactory performance in previous teaching or GA assignments.

Students are eligible to receive funding for up to five semesters. The MFA program should be completed in six semesters, the MA program should be completed in four semesters.

Up-to-date UNM tuition rates can be found on the Bursar's website.

Fellowships, Scholarships, and other aid

The UNM Office of Graduate Studies also offers a variety of fellowships and Scholarships. Students are also encouraged to apply for federal financial aid.

If you are requesting Financial Aid information visit the OGS website.

If you would like to learn about various scholarships, please visit following websites:

  • Fine Arts Scholarships
  • Office of Graduate Studies Funding Opportunties: Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants
  • UNM Scholarship Office
  • Art Department Scholarships for continuing students
  • General Scholarships for UNM Students (including Graduate Students)

    Once admitted to UNM, students are strongly encouraged to search for funding resources through the Midas Database. This is an online service which allows the University community to search a wide variety of databases for funding information and opportunities including grants, contracts, fellowships and sponsored support. Users can also access and search relevant funding publications via Midas.

    Clicking the link above will take you to the webpage for the Vice President for Research and Economic Development page. Once there, select " Midas Databases of Funding Sources" from the list and log in with your UNM ID and password.

    You'll be given a list of data sources to choose from, including Catalog of Federal Assistance Programs, New Mexico Catalog of Local Assistance Programs, New Mexico Funding Directory, RSP Funding for Minorities, RSP Funding for Travel, RSP Funding for Women, SPIN - Sponsored Programs Information Network, and Taft Corporate and Foundation Givers. You can check as many of these as you find relevant to your search.

    Then enter the search terms you'd like to select for, such as "Art Studio," "Fine Arts," or "Art History" and press Search. You'll be given a list of links to relevant scholarships to browse through and select among. The full list is not provided here because links are always changing and being updated, and the Midas database is continually updated and added to, making it the best resource for finding funding sources.

    • Grants.gov is the Federal government's portal for finding and applying for over one thousand grant opportunities from any of twenty-six participating agencies.
    • GuideStar national database of non-profit information. Requires free registration to search.
    • FedGrants FedGrants provides grant information from agencies including but not limited to: Homeland Security, DoD, USDE, HHS, NASA, NEH, NEA, and NSF (note the National Endowment for the Arts in there).
    • The NIH Guide (NIH) updated bi-weekly. The NIH-Guide includes the index of the publication as well as the full text of each bi-weekly edition of program announcements, RFPs and RFQs

    Additionally, the Office of Graduate Studies offers Research, Project and Travel Grants. The Graduate & Professional Student Association offers Student Research Allocations Committee grants, Specialized Travel grants, and Graduate Research and Development grants. For more information, please visit their sites.

    Information on University fellowships, dissertation fellowships, and similar programs can be found on the Office of Graduate Studies page, here.


    • For more information about undergraduate programs contact the College of Fine Arts at finearts@unm.edu.
    For graduate information click on Graduate Programs above or e-mail art255@unm.edu.
    For comments about our website the department webmaster.