The fellowship categories below describe the different types of awards available at the Graduate School. Questions about the assignment of GSAS awards should be directed to the director of graduate studies of the student’s program.
Time Commitment: Expectations and Limits
Funded doctoral students in Arts and Sciences programs who are appointed as student officers on fellowships with service responsibilities—Teaching Fellows, Preceptors, Research Fellows—may not spend more than twenty hours per week in the discharge of the responsibilities associated with their fellowship and those associated with any other activity within or outside Columbia for which they are compensated.
Students on fellowships with no service—a first-year Dean’s Fellowship or fifth-year Dissertation Fellowship—may spend up to ten hours per week on any other activity within or outside Columbia for which they are compensated.
Furthermore, during the school term, federal regulations prevent international students on F-1 visas from working more than twenty hours per week under all circumstances. During the summer, international students may work more than twenty hours per week.