EIU Online Master of Arts in History

Graduate Student Funding

The Department of History maintains several assistantships for full-time students and other funding opportunities for part-time and full-time students to support our most promising graduate students. Departmental stipends are currently above or at par with nearly all other MA programs in the region. Graduate students who receive funding at EIU also enjoy a number of additional benefits. All funding inquiries may be directed to Lee E. Patterson, Graduate Coordinator (lepatterson2@eiu.edu).

Please note: The deadline for consideration for graduate assistantships and the IRAD internship for the succeeding academic year is February 15. Please visit the Graduate School's Graduate Assistantship website for more information and for the online application.

Graduate Assistantships

The History Department awards a number of graduate assistantships to highly promising MA students. Awarded on a competitive basis, graduate assistantships are normally for the nine-month academic year and include a stipend and tuition waiver (graduate assistants are responsible for student fees). Assistantships are not available to students enrolled in the teacher-option MA program.

Departmental stipends are currently $1,097 per month. Graduate assistants must be enrolled as full-time students in courses approved by the graduate coordinator. They are required to work 18 hours a week under the direction of the coordinator or department chair. They may be expected to proctor exams, serve as tutors, give occasional guest lectures, act as research assistants, and provide other services for the department. The Graduate School requires all GA work to be done on campus.

IRAD Internship

In conjunction with EIU's Booth Library, the History Department offers graduate students the opportunity to gain library and archives experience through the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) Internship Program. Interns work approximately 20 hours per week in the University Archives and receive a monthly stipend and a tuition waiver. IRAD interns are appointed for the academic year, and often those appointments run into the summer months. Interns must be enrolled full-time.

Coleman and Matthiessen Scholarships

Every year graduate students, both part-time and full-time, are invited to apply for two scholarships. The Coleman Scholarship was created through the generous contribution of Charles H. and Dorothee Coleman, the former a longtime professor of history at EIU. The Joy Matthiessen Memorial Scholarship is named for a student who graduated from our Historical Administration program. Both scholarships are meant to support the efforts of students to complete their work for the traditional MA and the teacher-option MA. Applications for both scholarships should be received by March 15. Instructions for applying can be found at https://eiu.academicworks.com/.

Other Sources of Funding

We offer yearly a number of monetary awards for outstanding work in the MA program, such as the Schlauch, Syndergaard, and History Study Abroad Scholarships.

Both the department and Graduate School offer competitive grants for students giving papers at conferences.

History MA students in the past have succeeded in winning several University-wide graduate fellowship competitions including the Francis Meyer Hampton Scholarship, ROTC scholarships, and other special awards and scholarships. Each year the Hamand Graduate Writing Award competition for writing in history is open to MA students. Sizable cash awards are given for prize-winning essays and/or thesis chapters. Information about Graduate School awards may be found on their Scholarships page.