The Graduate School

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About the School

The Graduate School seeks to honor the rich traditions of graduate education and to ensure high standards in all of our degree-granting programs while maintaining a responsive ear to the voices of graduate students. Gifts to the Graduate School support graduate fellowships across campus and innovative initiatives in graduate education. Your support allows the University of Washington to remain competitive in attracting top students.

The Graduate School has identified four goals in the effort to enhance fellowship support for graduate students and develop and sustain programs that add value to graduate degrees. These goals focus on:

The Best and Brightest Students
By attracting high-caliber graduate students to work on research and teaching projects, the University can continue to draw and engage top faculty, which in turn benefits undergraduate students.

Future Professional Leaders
Training the best minds through superior degree and supplemental programs to become leaders for the 21st Century, not only as faculty, but in professional fields that sustain the knowledge economy for our region and the nation.

Diversity
Instilling a culture in which students from varied backgrounds are able to pursue graduate education in all fields to bring varied points of view to their training and future leadership roles.

Access
Offering graduate education opportunities for those who would not otherwise be able to afford it, particularly in fields that are typically underfunded or do not offer future high economic status.

Annual Support

The Graduate School strives to create innovative learning opportunities and real-world experiences for its students. But without the help of our alumni, many students wouldn't be able to afford their education. Your support makes a real difference in the lives of graduate students.

• The Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) Fellowship Fund provides vital support to exceptional students. For example, past GO-MAP fellow Chris Himes successfully defended his dissertation on population evolution in small mammalian habitats in spring quarter of 2008, and became the first African American male to get a Ph.D. in Zoology/Biology at the UW. Along the way, he also established a minority study skills mentoring group for undergraduates in the introductory biology course. Gifts to GO-MAP allow us to attract scholars like Chris to the UW and give them the resources they need to excel.
• Each year, the Graduate School honors a scholar-citizen whose academic expertise and social awareness improve the University and our society as a whole. The 2008 Graduate School Medalist, Caroline Faria, represents well the talent, commitment and vision the best graduate students bring to UW. Caroline's research and activism address HIV/AIDS treatment policies and women's rights in Africa. Her work makes a significant scholarly contribution and directly impacts the lives of Sudanese women displaced by violence and poverty. Gifts to the Graduate Dean's Discretionary Fund help us prepare students like Caroline to solve complex twenty-first century problems.
• Fellowships allow talented graduate students to make a difference in labs and classrooms across campus today, and to gain the skills they need to make a difference in the world tomorrow. You can make a difference with your gift to the Graduate School Fellowship Fund, which will support advanced degree students like Wendy Langeberg, an Epidemiology doctoral candidate searching for a genetic marker for prostate cancer. Her work could lead to the early detection or prevention of the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S.

We provide rigorous programs that prepare advanced degree students for their roles as future academic, business, cultural, community and world leaders. You can help our students achieve their best by contributing to one of our many programs:

• General Fellowship Support: UW graduate alumni giving participation is an outstanding 47 percent, in comparison to undergraduate alumni giving at 36 percent. The tremendous support of the UW graduate community-faculty, current students, and graduate alumni-led to the success of fellowship fundraising across campus throughout the campaign, as well as the recent Graduate Students First Challenge Fund effort. Fellowships are a powerful resource - they help us attract top graduate students and prepare them for leadership roles in society.
• Interdisciplinary: The Graduate School supports 18 interdisciplinary programs that foster cutting-edge research and allow graduate students to explore new intellectual territory. Advanced degree students are driving research in these cutting-edge fields and bringing the benefits of their work to the wider community. For example, the Society for Neurobiology & Behavior Outreach, a graduate student volunteer organization, recently received national recognition for their interactive hands-on demonstrations and videos for K-12 public schools about brain functions.
• Diversity: Intellectual and cultural diversity enhances learning, scholarship and creativity. It remains a top University priority to build the resources needed to attract and support a broadly diverse graduate student population. The Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) fellowship fund provides vital support to exceptional students whose perspectives and talent enrich our campus.

Annual gifts for current use help provide the Graduate School with valuable resources that can be directed to students, faculty, and programs. Your unrestricted gift to the Graduate Dean's Discretionary Fund allows the Dean to provide critical funds to meet the School's highest priority needs and emerging opportunities as they arise, improving the excellence of the School and the University.

Recognition Levels

The President's Club ($2,000+)
The Dean's Club ($1,000+)
All donors are recognized in various Graduate School publications

Contact Information

For more information on the Graduate School, visit our web site at http://www.grad.washington.edu/ or give us a call at 206.685.0365.