The Psychology Department has 19 departmental assistantships available each year for allocation across our Clinical, School, and Experimental doctoral graduate programs. Each year, the positions are thoughtfully distributed to our incoming and existing students based on a range of criteria; in particular, we attempt to fund all students as fairly and as evenly as possible. Duties for the assistantships vary, but the typical expectation is that departmental TAs work approximately 20 hours per week.

Compensation: Departmental TAs receive a stipend of $16,000 for the academic year as well as a fee waiver based on their credit load. Certain fees are not included in the waiver: registration, facilities, equipment, and athletic fees. Student health insurance is not waived, but students with other coverage may opt out of university insurance.

Departmental Assistantship examples (not an exhaustive list):

• Psychology 100 Instructor (Introduction to Psychology)
• Psychology 222 TA (Psychological Statistics)
• Psychology 320 TA (Undergraduate Advanced Psychological Research Methods)
• Psychology 400 TA (History and Systems)
• Psychology 520/521 TA (Graduate Statistics)
• Psychology 525/583 (Psychological Evaluation I/Educational Assessment and Interventions)
• Psychology 530/526 (Clinical and Diagnostic Interviewing/Psychological Evaluation II)

A complete list of Tuition and Fees

Several campus-based organizations, as well as Missoula and surrounding area agencies employ our students in research or clinical capacities. Students apply for open positions in the spring and typically begin work in the fall of the following academic year. Research schedules are worked out individually with the faculty supervisor and do not come with clinical duties.

Clinical assistantships are available to trained and more advanced graduate students from our applied programs (i.e., Clinical and School). Typically, these outside agencies have a contract with the University to employ our students. Work at clinical assistantships usually occurs two days a week, with the expectation that the students spend the majority of this time working in the respective settings.

Compensation:Community-based clinical assistantship compensation varies from site to site. In many cases, the positions will enable students to pay tuition equivalent to in-state resident students, offer a partial tuition waiver, as well as a lodging stipend, if applicable. The department describes assistantships that pay at least $14,800/academic year as offering a “Full Stipend;” assistantships that pay hourly or offer less than the full stipend are described as offering a “Partial Stipend.”

Research Assistantship examples (non-clinical positions):

• University of Montana Rural Institute: Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research, and Service: Pending funding availability the Rural Institute employs graduate students to assist in a variety of research-related activities. Current compensation is $14,800 for the year.

Community-based assistantship examples:

• Counseling Services at the UM Curry Health Center (CAPS): Clinical or school graduate students provide supervised individual and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention, and couples work to a diverse population of university students. Counseling services trainees perform assessments, conduct initial consultations, generate treatment plans, record progress in an electronic records format, and render psychological diagnoses. 
• Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribal Public Defenders Office: In collaboration with the CSKT Tribal Behavioral Health Program, Clinical graduate students provide supervised evaluations and group treatment for individuals with mental health and chemical dependency diagnosis for CSKT tribal clients in Pablo. 
• Student Advocacy Resource Center (SARC): Clinical graduate students provide individual counseling services to SARC clients (survivors of sexual assault, intimate partner violence and discrimination), provide on-call services to victims of sexual assault, assist with outreach programming and program development.
• HRSA Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) Program:Students in this position (up to 4 slots per year) provide integrated behavioral health services in primary care settings throughout Western Montana. This funding opportunity is limited to students in their final year of training at UM prior to internship. 

Please note: The information in this document is purely descriptive, subject to change, and does not represent a "contract" of any sort. Although we have a history of providing funding for students, the uncertainty in the marketplace makes it impossible for us to guarantee funding for any particular student. Funding decisions are made year to year, depending on multiple factors, including the students’ performance at assistantships, timely progress in the programs, and the Montana State Legislature.

Each year additional funding opportunities come from sabbatical or vacancy replacement teaching, as well as teaching openings during Summer Session (primarily 4 week) and online courses. Reimbursements are as follows:

$1,300/credit hours in summer session

$1,300/credit hours for online teaching

Assignments are made based on teacher ratings, perceived competency and financial need (priority is given to students not receiving full tuition waivers and/or tuition support).

The Indians Into Psychology (InPsych) Program offers scholarships to eligible Native American students accepted into the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of Montana. Eligible Native American students are those who are "a member of a federally recognized tribe" and who are in good standing academically. Students who accept the scholarship have a required payback; more specifically, for each year they receive the scholarship they must work a year for Indian Health Service. Payback begins after the scholarship recipient is licensed.

The InPsych Program is one of three such programs in the US funded by Indian Health Service (IHS); the University of North Dakota and Oklahoma State University are sister programs. According to Rose Weahkee (personal communication, January 2011) there are a total of 80 psychologists working for IHS and of those 80, 21 are American Indian/Alaska Native psychologists. The effort to recruit and train AI/AN psychologists is an effort to address this dire need. The American Psychological Association (1996) reported that there are fewer than 60 AI/AN psychologists in the US and Canada.

For more information please contact the InPsych Program Director Dr. Duncan Campbell