Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

GSAS Tuition Waiver Policies

Summer Enrollment Tuition Waiver Policies
Joint PhD Students Tuition Waiver Policy
PhD Students External Fellowship Tuition Waiver Policy
Extended Master's Students Partial Tuition Waiver Policy
Extended Master's Students Resolving Incompletes Tuition Waiver Policy
PhD Students Who Transition to a Master's Tuition Waiver Policy
Early Dissertation or Master's Thesis/Paper/Capstone Project Completion Tuition Waiver Policy

Summer Enrollment Tuition Waiver Policies

1. Any PhD student who registers for a GSAS course will receive a full summer tuition waiver. This policy does not apply to students who take courses through the Brandeis Summer School. Registration for the summer term does not count towards the residency requirements.
  • PhD students in Life Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics are required to register for summer.
  • Ph.D. students who anticipate graduating with an August degree are required to register for CONT 250B for the summer term in which they graduate.
2. Master’s students in the Biotechnology MS and in Biochemistry and Biophysics are required to enroll in the summer. Summer enrollment does not count toward the residency requirement. The summer tuition will be waived for the required enrollments.

Joint PhD Students Tuition Waiver Policy

Heller PhD students enter with a commitment of 4 years of stipend support and GSAS students enter with a commitment of 5 years of stipend support. Because of the structure of the current joint PhD programs, the student retains their funding from Heller, even as they are accepted into the joint program with GSAS. In order to mitigate this inequity, GSAS will provide a full tuition waiver to joint PhD students during that 5th year.

PhD Student External Fellowship Tuition Waiver Policy

Any PhD student outside the Division of Science who receives an external fellowship can put their GSAS funding on hold for up to a year to accept the fellowship. This policy would not reduce the total amount of funding a student receives from GSAS. Students whose stipends are paid from faculty grants are not covered by this policy. PhD students who are awarded fellowships that are external to Brandeis are still eligible to receive:

  • a full scholarship for the amount of their tuition during the semesters in which they are receiving these external funds. Students who have been awarded an external fellowship should contact Alyssa Canelli (acanelli@brandeis.edu) and Chris Nayler (cnayler@brandeis.edu) regarding the tuition scholarship.
  • university-funded health insurance. Please note that students receiving external fellowships will still need to waive or enroll in the student health insurance plan; they will continue to receive university-funded health insurance when their GSAS funding resumes (i.e., students who receive an external fellowship may receive an extra year of university-funded health insurance under this policy).
For more information about applying for external fellowships and grants, as well as a list of opportunities, please visit our Fellowships and Grants page. We also have a list of recent fellowships received by GSAS students.

Extended Master’s Students Partial Tuition Waiver Policy

Students who are in Extended Master’s residency and who are registered for only CONT 200A and/or the required thesis/project course during the fall or spring semester are eligible for a 75% tuition waiver. To qualify, students cannot be enrolled in any content courses, including auditing such courses. Students must request this by completing the Master's Extended Tuition Waiver Form. Please note that students can combine this waiver with a waiver for serving as a Course Assistant or Grader in the same semester, resulting in up to 100% tuition waiver.

Extended Master’s Students Resolving Incompletes Tuition Waiver Policy

Master’s students who need to maintain enrollment in order to resolve incompletes after completing all other degree requirements should register for CONT 200A. Students who are enrolled to resolve incompletes are eligible to receive a 100% tuition waiver if: a) they have completed their program’s residency requirement and b) they are not enrolled in or auditing any additional courses. Students should contact their department administrators to arrange enrollment, and departments should email Stephanie Hunt once the student is enrolled in CONT 200A so that the waiver can be added.

PhD Students Who Transition to a Master's Tuition Waiver Policy

Doctoral students who choose to withdraw from their PhD program and graduate with a master’s will retain their PhD funding through the end of the semester in which they formally notify their program and the Graduate School of their intention. Should it then take the student an additional semester to complete the requirements for the master’s, the student will be responsible for the appropriate tuition in that semester; extenuating circumstances can be discussed with the Graduate School on a case-by-case basis.

Early Dissertation or Master's Thesis/Paper/Capstone Project Completion Tuition Waiver Policy

All students must register for the term in which they plan to complete their degree. PhD students should register for CONT 500 (in fall or spring) or CONT 250 (in summer), and master’s students should register for CONT 200 (or the department equivalent). If a student completes their dissertation or master’s thesis/paper/capstone project within ten (10) business days of the first day of classes for that term, or, in the summer, within ten (10) business days of Commencement, they will receive a full tuition waiver. Completion is defined as follows:

  • For a PhD dissertation or a master’s thesis: Deposit of the dissertation or thesis to ProQuest ETD. For more information about this process, visit our Thesis and Dissertation Guide.
  • For a master’s paper or capstone project: Acceptance of the paper or project by the program. Students should immediately notify Abigail Arnold once the paper or project is accepted.

Students should complete the application to graduate as soon as it is available for the semester.