In addition to regular TA positions, the department has a limited number of honorary fellowships that provide full financial support without teaching duties; and research assistantships that provide full support in return for assisting a particular faculty with research. Fellowships are awarded on the basis of merit, while the research assistantships are awarded to students working in certain areas on the basis of progress toward the PhD. Many PhD students will receive some support (an average of two to three quarters) from one or both of these sources during their graduate careers.

Some of these are awarded to students after they arrive, while others, including the following, are typically awarded to incoming graduate students.

• ARCS Fellowships: cash awards of $7,500 for the first year and $5,000 per year for years two and three, awarded by the Seattle chapter of the ARCS Foundation to an outstanding incoming student in addition to a regular Teaching Assistantship.
• Microsoft Scholar Awards: cash awards of $5000 per year for three years, offered to outstanding incoming graduate students and funded through a generous donation from Microsoft Research.
• Top Scholar Awards: cash stipends in addition to regular TA awards, funded by the UW Graduate School and the Department of Mathematics for outstanding incoming students.
• GO-MAP Fellowships: funded by the Graduate Opportunity and Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP) of the University of Washington.

In addition, students in recent years have been supported as Research Assistants to faculty funded by the following agencies, among others:

• US Department of Energy
• National Science Foundation
• Office of Naval Research
• University of Washington Graduate School