Graduate College Tuition & Fee Waivers

University of Illinois provides a limited reserve of waivers to the UIC Graduate College, which we then award to programs in three ways: allocated per semester, for students who have won individual internal and external fellowships, and for students selected for external training grants by programs.

Directors of Graduate Studies and their staff should refer to the Waiver Handbook for complete information on Graduate College waivers, including how they are allocated, how to request them, and deadlines.

In general, a degree-seeking student holding a Graduate College waiver must be registered full-time, being at least 9 credits in the Fall and Spring and 3 or more credits in the summer in a program under the auspices of the Graduate College. [These registration requirements are effective Fall 2021.] Registration exceptions are made for students with disabilities documented by the UIC Disability Resource Center and illnesses/health conditions for which a doctor does not recommend full-time enrollment. The student must also be in good standing.

Students must be degree-seeking. Students in full-cost recovery programs and Global Direct are not eligible for waivers. 

After a reversed decision in late Fall 2021, the university will continue to subsidize the cost of CampusCare for allocated waivers in fall and spring semesters. However, graduate students with an external fellowship or on a training grant from NIH will be ineligible for CampusCare subsidies. Students with a fellowship waiver, if the fellowship originates from the Graduate College, will continue to see a portion of their CampusCare costs covered by the Graduate College.

In general, Graduate College waivers cover the following charges:

  • Full tuition, including differential (if applicable)
  • Service fee
  • Health service fee
  • Academic facilities maintenance fund assessment (AFMFA)
  • Library and Information Technology Assessment (LITA)
  • CampusCare health insurance (partial in fall-spring — not summer)

Graduate College waivers do not cover the following charges:

  • General fee
  • CTA transportation fee (there is currently an opt-out option; cf. https://go.uic.edu/fall_upass)
  • Student-to-student fee
  • Sustainability fee
  • International Student fee

Waivers linked to an assistantship (teaching, research, or administrative graduate), behave slightly differently. Students are encouraged to visit the new labor contract.

Degree-seeking students who are interested in receiving an allocated Graduate College waiver must speak to the Director of Graduate Studies for their academic program. All programs have a limited and fixed number of full-time (FT) allocated waivers available; programs that have a high percentage of part-time (PT) students also have PT waivers available. Effective Fall 2021, a FT waiver requires 9 or more credits in the Fall and Spring and 3 or more credits in the summer; at PT waiver will require 1-8 hours in fall and spring, 1-2 credit hours in summer. Summer waivers are the total required across the summer (i.e., in either session or spread across both). All Graduate College waivers are requested by the academic program, not directly by the student, and in order to receive an allocated waiver a student cannot have a waiver from another source on campus. The Graduate College communicates these waiver recipients’ information to Financial Aid each semester. Only degree-seeking students are eligible for allocated waivers.

Departments should email their waiver requests to Box (as email waiver attachments) GC_Waiv.zu3vf9yfezouzec3@u.box.com.

A new system is in development and will be unveiled “soon”… 

Graduate College students who have won a fellowship, grant, or been assigned to a training grant with a substantial stipend may be eligible for a tuition and fee waiver.  (As of AY2020-21, a nine-month fellowship stipend of $20,615 or a twelve-month stipend of $27,487 is eligible.) These waivers are applied to students’ accounts for the duration of their awards’ funding, and maybe renewed.

Fellowship and grant recipients who are interested in being considered for a tuition and fee waiver should have their director of graduate studies or program staff member complete the online fellowship waiver request form. All requests are reviewed by the Graduate College. (Due to abuses, students are no longer permitted to submit directly.) In instances when a student’s award provides a cost of education allowance, split waivers can be applied by the Graduate College so that award monies earmarked for tuition and fee costs exclusively can be taken utilized. Split waiver worksheets are available from the Graduate College; normally departmental administrators who handle award processing in departments attend to these each semester. Waiver recipients must be degree-seeking.

Effective Fall 2021: Students on NSF and NIH grants will no longer see CampusCare waived.

For any questions about all Graduate College waivers, please contact Benn Williams, Fellowships and Awards Coordinator, at bwilli7@uic.edu.

A Graduate College waiver plus any federal loans and/or work-study cannot exceed the cost of attendance for the academic year. If applying for loans and/or work-study, complete a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

Students must report Graduate College waivers to Financial Aid, because loan amounts and disbursement of funds may be affected, especially if any loan money will be used for living expenses. A fellowship stipend may affect federal student loans or work-study. Typically, students with waivers/fellowships may be limited in the amount of federal loans they can borrow.

Students who have already received a refund for the current year in federal loans and accept a waiver/fellowship, may be responsible to return this refund to UIC. Contact your dedicated contact in the Office of Student Financial Aid for further information.

Waivers attached to a teaching, research, and [administrative] graduate assistantships are handled by Human Resources. Contact your unit’s HR person for details; information appears in the typical offer letter, cf. https://hr.uic.edu/employees/new-employees/uic-101/graduate-assistants/.

Here are some lesser-known grants and waivers (not handled by the Graduate College) available to UIC students. Contact the Office of Financial and Scholarships for assistance.