Financial Support

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

It is the policy of our department to support as many doctoral students as possible through a combination of:

• Teaching Assistantships

• Research Assistantships

• Full Fellowships

• Tuition Fellowships

Doctoral students normally receive appointments as teaching assistants and receive a full tuition fellowship and stipend for the first three semesters of study. Students beyond the third semester are usually supported as research assistants. However, if that is not possible, our department, to the extent that it can, will continue to support the student as a teaching assistant. It has been our experience that this is necessary only in rare circumstances. A doctoral student may also receive financial support during the summer months (June-August) of the first year of study in the form of a research assistantship. Students interested in getting supported during that period must make appropriate arrangements by contacting individual faculty who may provide funding through a research grant.

In addition to providing financial support, the purpose of Teaching Assistantships is to give an opportunity to graduate students to experience various departmental teaching activities as an integral part of their doctoral program. A graduate student supported by this form of financial aid will be asked to perform several of the following duties:

• Attend lectures.
• Lead section meetings.
• Supervise students in laboratory sessions.
• Grade lab reports, homework papers, and exams.
• Record homework grades.
• Hold office hours to answer questions from students.
• Meet or communicate with lecturer weekly.
• Proctor exams.
• Write handouts and problem solutions.
• Suggest exam problems.
• Conduct extra help/review sessions before exams.

The main duty of a graduate student supported by a Research Assistantship is to participate and engage in research activities under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. This type of support is given to well-qualified graduate students under the discretion of individual faculty members of our department. A typical Research Assistantship lasts for the remaining duration of the doctoral study and provides a yearly stipend as well as a full tuition fellowship.

A limited number of exceptionally qualified graduate students may receive financial aid in the form of a Full Fellowship. This type of support allows the student to exclusively focus on his/her studies for a set period of time (usually one year) without any other obligations.

In addition, our department may grant Tuition Fellowships to selected students, to help these students cover tuition expenses.

Our faculty periodically reviews graduate students. Decisions for continued financial support are based on performance.

We strongly recommend exceptionally qualified doctoral students, who are U.S. citizens, to apply for graduate fellowships granted by governmental or private programs, such as:

• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP)

• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG)

• DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE-CSGF)

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

• Hertz Foundation Fellowships  

Master of Science in Engineering (M.S.E.)

It is not the policy of our department to offer full financial aid to graduate students who are enrolled only for the purpose of obtaining an M.S.E. degree. However, limited financial aid of 50% tuition support may be available to selected students.