Fellowship
MA form of aid given to graduate students to help support their education. Some fellowships include a tuition waiver or a payment to the university in lieu of tuition. Most fellowships include a stipend to cover reasonable living expenses (e.g., just above the poverty line). Fellowships are a form of gift aid and do not have to be repaid.
Fellowship是一种对在进行研究工作的人员给予的较高额奖学金，是美国给研究生的经济资助中竞争最为激烈的奖学金。如果获得了Fellowship，即除了免学杂费、住宿费、保险费、书本费以外，还给获奖学生一定金额作为其个人消费费用。同时不必服务，也不用纳税，这种奖学金是完全意义上的“全奖”。
Graduate Assistantship包括以下两种——
Teaching Assistantship (TA)
A form of financial aid awarded to graduate students to help support their education. Teaching assistantships usually provide the graduate student with a waiver of all or part of tuition, plus a small stipend for living expenses. As the name implies, a TA is required to perform teaching-related duties.
Research Assistantship (RA)
A form of financial aid awarded to graduate students to help support their education. Research assistantships usually provide the graduate student with a waiver of all or part of tuition, plus a small stipend for living expenses. As the name implies, an RA is required to perform research duties. Sometimes these duties are strongly tied to the student"s eventual thesis topic.
这种属于服务性奖学金，获得此类资助者每周担任12-20小时的辅助教学或研究工作。这种经济资助只提供给硕士或者博士申请者。绝大多数的美国高校研究生院都设置这种资助，然而并非所有的此类资助都能覆盖一年中的全部费用，但多数都在全部金额的2/3以上。不过很多学校提供这种奖学金的同时，还会给学生免学杂费，也就相当于申请到“全奖”。在这里有一点要说明：TA/RA所得是要纳税的。
Tuition Waiver
实际上Tuition Waiver并不属于奖学金的范畴，而是属于经济资助，这是中国学生，尤其是非理工类申请人拿的最多的一类资助类型。它也是非服务性资助中发放最多的，最容易申请的一种。这里顺便说一句：如果你可以获得学费全部减免就是大学通常所说的“半奖”，如果再拿到RA/TA就属于“全奖”了。