The University of Washington, based in Seattle, WA offers a fully funded PhD in communication. The PhD program is designed to balance the need for a broad foundation in communication scholarship with the need to specialize in a field of interest for the dissertation. Graduate assistant appointments are continuing commitments offered at the time of admission and reviewed annually. The department maintains approximately 35-40 assistantships, which are merit-based awards available to students in the M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D. programs. The vast majority of these are teaching assistantships that provide a salary, a partial waiver, and health insurance coverage.