Forms & Resources

These are departmental forms that all students will need to fill out and submit to the Graduate Program Director at the appropriate time of their program:

There are some forms that Graduate Students may need to arrange to be filled out and submitted to the Graduate Program Director if relevant. These are posted here:

Resources from the Graduate School and Office for Professional Development

The Office of Professional Development, nested within the UMass Graduate School, is an excellent resource for workshops and advice on the graduate school experience, research, grantseeking, work-life balance, the job search, and teaching. In addition to consulting their webpage, be sure to read the weekly emails that describe their workshops, dissertation writing retreats, and other programming.


The Graduate School also keeps track of campus resources that may be relevant to students, including students experiencing food insecurity, who encounter discrimination or sexual misconduct, or conflicts on campus. They also maintain a list of relevant campus rules and policies.

Resources from the Institute for Social Science Research

The UMass Amherst Institute for Social Science Research “provides resources and support for campus-wide researchers using or learning to use social science methods, seeking to take part in collaborative and interdisciplinary research, doing publicly engaged research, and seeking external funding for research.” As graduate students, you may want to attend talks and panels ISSR organizes, attend a methodological workshop, get methodological consulting, or access methodological software or computing through ISSR.

Resources from the Library

Graduate students should expect to use a number of resources from the UMass libraries, including the collection of physical books; ebooks and journal articles which can be accessed online; interlibrary loan for books not housed at UMass or the 5 Colleges; computing, printing, and scanning resources; the advice of reference librarians; advice and support for open access publishing and understanding copyright; the use of the Graduate Commons; and if desired, reserving an independent carrel for quiet study in the stacks. For specific inquiries, students can reach out directly to Communication’s dedicated library Jeremy Smith at jlsmith@library.umass.edu.

Support for Teaching

In addition to support from the Graduate School for graduate student instructors specifically, UMass has a Center for Teaching and Learning that supports the teaching mission of the whole campus. Services include workshops, individual consultations about teaching, and midterm assessments administered by the Center (the MAP Program).

Support for Writing

The UMass Writing Center, located in the W.E.B. Dubois Library, supports all students, including graduate students, faculty, and staff in developing their writing. They provide the support through one-on-one appointments to discuss specific writing projects.

Support for Grantseeking

Make sure you’re aware of all the departmental funding opportunities listed on our Funding page.

The UMass Graduate School administers a number of internal grants.

In addition, they provide workshops and support for students seeking external grants.

Here is a list of ideas for external grants and fellowships that current and former students have researched, applied for, and in some cases, won.