General regulations concerning application for admission and financial aid are published in the Graduate School Bulletin; December 31 is the usual application deadline for financial aid. To support the assessment of applicants' analytical and writing abilities, the Department of History requires that a writing sample accompany each application. The Department prefers papers written for history courses or on historical topics. But applicants should submit whatever sample they believe best exhibits their skills of analysis and exposition. The writing sample should be sent directly to the Department.
Since financial awards for doctoral study are based on academic merit rather than need, applicants for admission should request funding in all but extraordinary cases. All first-year students who do not have external financial awards (federal, state or private) normally receive University fellowships consisting of a full tuition payment and an additional stipend to cover living expenses. The department guarantees support for the first five years of study, including three years of summer support.
The Department of History has a number of resources to support the research and writing of dissertations for advanced graduate students. The Evan Frankel Fellowship in the Humanities provides full fellowship support for a graduate student at the dissertation stage. The Graduate School offers a substantial number of Research Fellowships and Dissertation Year Fellowships on a competitive basis to advanced graduate students throughout the University to support their thesis writing.
Because teaching is an integral part of the program, most doctoral students serve as teaching assistants in survey courses during their second and third years; their duties usually include helping the senior faculty plan assignments and write undergraduate examination questions, leading discussion sections, and grading undergraduate examinations and papers. During their fourth or fifth year of study, students who are writing their dissertations may become advanced teaching assistants who design and offer their own undergraduate seminars. In such cases, students submit their topics and reading lists for Departmental approval but ultimately organize and implement the courses themselves. A number of teaching positions also exist in Northwestern's School of Continuing Studies and Summer Session, where advanced graduate students can teach their own broader courses.
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