phd with no funding

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Sharing PhD experiences across the University of Warwick and beyond

How to survive doing your PhD when you have no funding? (1)

How to secure funding for your PhD, if you get admitted, is probably one of the most stressful issues the majority of  prospective PhD students are facing. The number of scholarships, grants and awards is limited compared to the number of applications, and very often the main obstacle is not getting an offer, but sorting out your finances. This begs another question: how to do your PhD and fund yourself at the same time?

Navigating the funding opportunities at the same time while preparing your PhD application requires an incredible amount of time, especially if you are an international student and you have no previous experience with the higher education in the country where you are applying for.

Seven years ago I started exploring my PhD options and the first thing I learned about the UK system was that finding a supervisor who is an expert in the topic you would like to write about and who is also willing to supervise you is the key thing. Even if you are the best candidate in the world, without a suitable supervisor you cannot get on board. At that point, I already had six years of research experience and I basically had all the data for my chosen topic collected. Luckily for me, I got two offers at the UK universities and chose Warwick. However, little did I know that while my efforts were focused on supervisors, transcripts, IELTS and references, I completely missed all the deadlines for funding opportunities thinking that scholarship applications take place once you get admitted, and not before or at the same time.

Doing a full-time PhD with no funding is extremely hard, but not impossible. Although I did apply for a scholarship in my first year, I didn’t get it. I also couldn’t get a student loan in my home country because the banks rejected an idea of funding something which is down abroad. Also, my government only offered scholarships to those studying in the country. I found myself in the dead end. My family helped me as much as they could, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn’t afford my third year and, despite upgrading to PhD in my first year, I had to give up and finish my study earning an MPhil degree instead. After years of research and three years at Warwick, not completing a PhD I dreamed about was devastating.

Meanwhile, with a lot of sacrifices, I managed to save enough to start another PhD at Warwick hoping that this time my chances for getting a scholarship would be higher as I already completed an MPhil, had many years of work and research experience and published works. However, this didn’t happen and once again I found myself struggling as a self-funded student supported only by the small Frankopan Fund grant for Croatian students.

The moment I learned the reason behind my unsuccessful scholarship applications felt like going down the rabbit hole at warp 9. Academic grades counted for 50 % of points, while a research proposal, experience and published works meant much less. As a result, my entire CV and everything I had achieved meant very little because my academic grades were very good, but not excellent. The make things worse for me, I got them 10 years before coming to Warwick in the educational and grading systems which were very different and where having First Class was extremely rare. Also, I have been visually impaired since birth with autism which went undiagnosed until I came to the UK, but, as such, I managed to complete three university degrees in my home country with no rights to reasonable adjustments and struggling on an everyday basis to actually read and write. This certainly had a huge impact on my grades, and, unfortunately, my funding opportunities.

My PhD journey has been exceptionally daunting, but it did help me grow personally and professionally. Not many students will be lucky enough to have supervisors with grant money aside or to get a scholarship, which does make entire PhD experience much easier because, instead of focusing on survival, you can actually focus on your thesis. Some students have more opportunities than others because their governments or employers are supporting them, or they are eligible for doctoral loans . However, this doesn’t mean that if you are not one of them, you should give up on your dream. In the second half of this blog post, I will discuss some ideas and tips that can help you to achieve your academic goals when the universe is sending you a not very subtle message that it is not meant to be.

To be continued… 🙂

Have you been struggling with securing funding for your research degree? Are you a self-funded student? Tweet us at  @ResearchEx , email us at [email protected], or leave a comment below.

Blanka Matkovic is the 4 th year PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, where she previously completed an MPhil degree in History department. Her MPhil thesis was published in the USA in 2017. Blanka’s primary interests are peace and war studies, conflict resolution, migrations and diaspora, human rights violations, the Second World War and war crimes, and dealing with the past and memory. She is the Blog Editor for the PhD Life and the Study Blog. Blanka can be contacted via email and followed on Twitter at @bmsplit .

Cover image:  career-road-away-way-of-life-479578 / geralt /  CC0 1.0

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May 29, 2022

The Myth of the Fully-Funded PhD: Using Scholarships to Mitigate the Financial Realities of Research Degrees

When you decide to go to graduate school of any kind, you are making a financial decision that will dramatically affect your earning capacity for the duration of the program and throughout your life. While the caliber of school, available mentorship opportunities, and research resources are important factors to consider when making a decision about which university to attend, students often forget to carefully assess the financial realities associated with each opportunity.

The financial decision surrounding attending graduate school

Unlike students in professional graduate programs, most PhD students do not plan to pursue high-paying careers, and they depend on the fact that doctoral programs automatically include “full funding” to offset the cost of long-term research degrees. Though many graduate students receive admissions offers that are referred to as “fully-funded,” such funding packages require PhD students to teach multiple years in exchange for tuition waivers and teaching stipends. Once students start to work for the university and balance their many responsibilities, they quickly realize that “full-funding” isn’t exactly the same as a “scholarship” or a “full-ride. ”

Common misconceptions about what it means to be “fully-funded”

Depending on the university and its location, the value of one’s teaching stipend in relationship to workload and cost of living can vary greatly. In reality, graduate student teaching stipends for students who live in large United States cities are not enough to cover basic necessities. As a result, most graduate students go into additional debt to complete their programs.

Since tenure-track jobs have become increasingly elusive in the United States university system, today’s doctoral students must also satisfy a growing list of requirements to be considered for well-paying and stable teaching positions upon graduation. The added responsibilities associated with producing early publications, progressing through the degree quickly, regularly attending conferences, and pursuing ongoing professionalization or certification opportunities all require significant time commitments.

However, since doctoral students must work for the university in order to waive tuition and fees, they cannot devote all of their time to academic and professional progress. To avoid burnout and set aside more time for completing research, I suggest that prospective and current graduate students continuously apply for extramural funding, research fellowships, and community-based scholarships throughout their degrees.

Accepted’s clients received over $3.5 million dollars in scholarship offers in the last application cycle.  Explore our scholarship essay services   to find out how we can help you!

How the academic culture deemphasizes the financial aspects of the work

The common phrase “no one goes into a PhD to make money” is thrown around frequently in academic settings, and seems to suggest that pursuits related to funding are selfish and “anti-intellectual.” Especially in the humanities and social sciences, there is significant cultural importance placed on the fact that academia is not about money, and that academic careers are shaped by intellectual merit, not an individual’s financial capacity to stay in school.

Historically, however, the option to waive tuition in return for a few years of university teaching was an affordable way to enable individuals to pursue intellectual projects in the not-for-profit environment of the public university. One generation ago, doctoral students transitioned into tenure-track jobs with much more ease than those currently on the market. They also entered public institutions carrying far less student debt, and upon employment, they received guaranteed state pensions and salaries commensurate with the cost of living.

In today’s public university, the labor commitments of teaching assistants have grown significantly while the pay has not caught up with the steep rise in the cost of living for most university hubs. For example, throughout my graduate program at UCLA, I received between $15,000 and $22,000 in annual pay as a teaching or staff stipend. Given that my Los Angeles rent was upwards of $1,200 per month and rising, I was unable to continue my degree without applying for extramural grants and taking on work outside of the university.

Furthermore, the number of tenure track positions is diminishing so it is unlikely that I will ever make the stable and generous income to which my advisors have access. So the cultural norms of the intellectual community, which eschew any discussion of financial wellness, are no longer sustainable for most graduate students.

Though most graduate programs do not emphasize the financial aspects of navigating life as a student researcher and university employee, I have found that the pursuit of additional funding is neither a greedy nor an “anti-intellectual” use of my time in graduate school. Rather it is a great way to empower myself to set aside more time for conducting critical research and preparing for a successful career.

Strategies for applying for funding throughout your doctoral degree

In addition to my own efforts to build funding applications into my graduate studies, as a Student Affairs Advisor at the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center, I have worked with graduate students to generate strategies for incorporating annual cycles of grant writing into their studies.

Here are some of the most important takeaways from that work:

Most applicants are so anxious about whether or not they will be accepted to their desired PhD program that they don’t think about funding until after they’ve found out where they have gotten in. But there are a number of organizations, like the Ford Foundation , the Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation , the Stanford-Knight Hennessey Scholars Program , the National Science Foundation, and the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation , that offer funding for prospective graduate students.Like university admission applications, these also run on an annual cycle that requires students to apply one year before they plan to enroll in school. So, if you are planning to spend this fall putting together applications for graduate school, it is well worth it to add a number of fellowship applications to your list as well. Even if you aren’t successful with your first round of applications you will be well prepared to add scholarship applications to your graduate school routine. This is an activity that you should engage in throughout your entire degree, and you have to start somewhere!

Below are some questions that you should be able to answer by carefully analyzing your letter of admission. If you can’t answer them, try to find out the answers before you make your decision.• How many years of teaching assistantship does the university commit to you? How many students are you responsible for teaching, assessing, and holding office hours with for each term?• Are there stipulations related to your progress through the degree that may create limitations on your access to university funding or campus work opportunities?

• Does your status as university student or staff come with health benefits?

• Does your university have a union for teaching assistants? If so, what employee rights do you have through your union membership? Pay close attention to issues of pay related to maternity leave, medical leave, absence in the case of the death of a family member, and access to childcare.

• Is there an employee handbook for student staff and teaching assistants?

• What is the pay scale associated with the teaching positions that the university has offered you?

Before you decide where to go to school, do the research about your housing options. How much does university housing cost? Are there other options?Some universities offer annual budgets on their websites that include the cost of housing, but you have to analyze these carefully to understand how these budgets translate to your degree. For instance, UCLA’s estimated cost of attendance for graduate students only lists the annual budget for the academic year, which consists of 8 months. So you’d have to add four months of summer expenses in order to get a true sense of the living costs associated with each calendar year.

Once you’ve chosen a university, I would suggest that you map out the various phases of the program, the skillsets that you wish to build, and the accomplishments that you will achieve as you progress through the degree. There are different types of funding for every step of progress that you make, and if you are intentional about identifying related funding you can apply for specific opportunities throughout.Here are some examples of different achievements or degree phases associated with specific funding opportunities:• 2-3 years of coursework

• Conference travel

• Master’s exam period

• Master’s thesis writing year

• Language study

• Building a technical or quantitative analytical methodology

• Preliminary fieldwork or archival research

• Prospectus development

• Qualifying exam period

• Preliminary dissertation research

• Primary fieldwork or archival research

• Dissertation writing year

Most research-related funding opportunities do not pay out until a full academic year after the application submission period. This means that you should plan out your goals an entire year in advance, and apply for funding in the year before you carry out the projects and goals that you propose in your application materials. If you can continuously conceptualize your degree in the long-term, you will be able to anticipate the types of funding that will support your progress.

Whether you work for the institution or not, it will likely be up to you to cover the cost of your summers during graduate school. Rather than wait until summer starts to figure out how you’re going to pay the bills, start making plans the preceding fall. You may find paid opportunities to conduct research, fieldwork, or language study during your summer. But you also have the option to take on paid internships in a number of research fields in both the public and private sectors.

Do you need help with your PhD admissions or PhD funding applications? Our expert advisors are here to walk you through the PhD application process, from strategy-building to final send-off. Check out our Graduate School Admissions Consulting & Editing Services for more information on how we can help you GET ACCEPTED…with funding!

Student Affairs Advisor and scholarship expert, Rebecca has six years experience reviewing and editing large grant applications, research-based proposals, statements of purpose, personal statements and fellowship materials. Want Rebecca to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• 5 Fatal Flaws to Avoid in Your Grad School Statement of Purpose , a free guide
• How to Write About Your Research Interests
• The Personal Statement That Got Me a Large Scholarship to Cambridge

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•       Financial Aid       PhD Scholarships and Financial Aid

PAYING FOR YOUR PHD Expert Tips, Scholarships Opportunities and Resources for Financing an Advanced Degree

The average yearly tuition for a PhD program is slightly above $16,000, which means students will invest about $80,000 in tuition fees alone for a five-year program. Add in fees, cost-of-living, travel expenses and the figure can easily surpass six figures. Yet, it is possible to fund a PhD program without breaking the bank and going into debt.

Featured Online Schools

• PhD Cost Breakdown
• PhD Financial Aid Options
• Expert Spotlight: Lawrence Burns, PhD
• Earning Outlook for Phd Students
• Most Lucrative PhD Careers
• Expert Spotlight: Darren Pierre, PhD
• PhD: By The Numbers
• Additional Financial Aid Resources

PHD COST BREAKDOWN

The value of a college education should not be understated, but neither should its actual cost. Earning a doctoral degree can be an expensive proposition. According to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the average tuition and fees for a graduate program of study was $16,435 in 2012-2013. The table below outlines the 2012-2013 graduate tuition and fees by academic institution.

• All Institutions $16,435
• Public $10,408
• Private Non-Profit $23,698
• Private For-Profit $14,418

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

A rough calculation of the number of years it takes to complete a doctoral program, multiplied by the average 2012-2013 tuition and fees from the NCES, reveals the following total cost figures by academic field of study.

A five- to six-figure education is something to take seriously as there are debt implications after leaving finishing a PhD program. Graduating doctoral students in 2013 left school with an average debt of just over $15,000, according to the National Science Foundation. By field, students in the Social Sciences, Education and Humanities graduate with the highest levels of student debt:

• Education: $26,566
• Social Sciences: $26,222
• Humanities: $21,485

Conversely, the science and technology fields graduate students with the lowest debt figures:

• Physical Sciences: $6,342
• Engineering: $7,031
• Life Sciences: $11,905
• Physical Sciences 78.2%
• Engineering 75.1%
• Life Sciences 67.2%
• Humanities 48.4%
• Social Sciences 46.5%
• Education 44.1%

Source: National Science Foundation, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2013

While these figures may seem alarming, a deeper dive into survey data from the National Science Foundation actually paints a more positive picture. Overall, more than 62 percent of all doctoral recipients graduate from school without a single dollar of debt.

Prospective students can use the table below to get a better sense of the percentage of students who take on debt at incremental levels in each field of academic study. A majority of students graduate with $10,000 or less in debt after finishing their doctoral degree.

PhD Cost Factors

The total cost of earning a doctoral degree is variable because of the sheer number of different factors involved. Tuition is not the only cost to consider when thinking about applying to a PhD program.

Typically, students pay full tuition rates during their first three years of doctoral study and receive reduced tuition rates for the remainder of the program. However, the actual cost of tuition does vary and may be dependent on the student’s actual degree program.

Graduate students pay a range of fees, with the most common including:

• Health Services (access to health facilities on campus)
• Health Insurance (personal health insurance)
• Student Activity (subsidizes athletics and other clubs)
• Student Recreation (access to recreational facilities on campus)

Some programs estimate students should be prepared to pay between $3,000 and $4,500 per academic year in student fees and health insurance costs.

Students with a master’s degree or coursework in a similar graduate program may be able to transfer credits into their doctoral program. That can lower the total number of credits required to graduate, which can lower the total cost of the degree. However, some institutions do limit the amount of tuition credits that can be applied for graduate work done in a related field at other institutions.

Whether or not the student has an assistantship does not affect the cost of textbooks and other academic materials. Books are a revolving charge, one a student should plan upon each semester or quarter.

Housing, utilities and food are considered indirect expenses students incur during their education. PhD students should plan on anywhere from $12,000 to $25,000 and up for living expenses each year. Again, this figure is highly variable based on the location of the university and the cost-of-living in that area.

Owning a car means additional budgeting for insurance, car payments and gas. Additionally, students may need to travel for conferences and research. Without funding from a graduate student association or grant program, the student will have to cover these costs individually.

PhD students with children may have to account for childcare costs. Purchasing a new computer and other supplies may also be required. This type of budgeting will vary from individual to individual, program to program.

Most PhD programs allow students to progress at their own pace, requiring them to complete and defend their dissertation within a certain time period (e.g. six years). However, the time it takes to complete a dissertation depends on the student, area of study, research, etc. This can impact cost of attending a doctoral program.

Example Cost of Attendance

A student’s budget should include the total cost of attendance—that is both direct (tuition and fees) and indirect costs (e.g. housing). This budget is the starting point for determining the student’s financial need, how much financial aid they require, and if they can afford to attend a doctoral program. Below is a sample five-year total cost of attendance chart based on an in-state tuition program, with a budget that assumes fixed costs for fees and indirect costs, such as housing. It also does not take into account assistantships and tuition waivers for assistants.

Based on a figure that’s slightly below the 2012-2013 average graduate tuition cost, the total cost of attendance can still produce sticker shock. An average student in a program that charges $12,000 per year in tuition could have to pay between $30,000 and $45,000 year in total costs.

PhD FINANCIAL AID OPTIONS

Prospective PhD candidates have an abundance of financial aid options to help fund their graduate studies. Typically, students are fully funded by a combination of sources, including scholarships, fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, or student loans.

It is important for students to note that most sources of aid are awarded by individual academic programs, so they should follow-up with their department for up-to-date information.

Below is a high-level overview of the common types of graduate financial aid.

Prospective PhD candidates can turn to a variety of funding sources, including scholarships, grants, and fellowships to support their education financially. As discussed, most students use a combination of one or more of these funding sources to finance their degree program and research.

PhD students can apply for a variety of scholarships that award students with funds that can be used to help cover the cost of tuition, books and other fees.

Grants are similar to scholarships and are academic-based awards that can be used to augment other sources of financial aid.

Fellowships are a different type of funding that may encompass a scholarship or grant and can be used to fund research, study and teaching in the US and internationally. Many fellowships provide full tuition and a yearly stipend to students.

A PhD should never be an end in itself but rather a means to an end. The path to a PhD is an arduous one and should never be undertaken without serious thought to what it will bring the student. That said, there is money available for graduate study in most fields, and a student in the humanities should be very careful to apply to appropriate programs which fund their grad students.

• Engineering
• Physical Sciences

The SMART program is designed to support graduate students studying in STEM disciplines and offers a range of other benefits, including supplies and health insurance allowances and employment placement services with the DoD after graduation.

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship is a three-year graduate fellowship that is designed to support doctoral students across fifteen engineering disciplines.

This three-year fellowship program supports the research efforts of doctoral students in STEM-related fields of study and allows them to pursue their work at any accredited graduate program in the country.

Renewable award for graduate students enrolled in a full-time APA-accredited doctoral program of study in psychology. Underrepresented, minority students are encouraged to apply.

This fellowship is open to female scholars and is designed to help offset the doctoral student’s living expenses during her final year of working on a dissertation.

This fellowship is a single-year of funding that is designed to support the doctoral research of a student working in child psychology.

The Javits Fellowship is provided on a needs- and competitive-basis to graduate students pursing graduate degrees in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.

Two fellowships are awarded to support doctoral students who plan to study at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece for a year.

The Richard M. Weaver Scholarship is open to graduate student members of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and supports the academic work of scholars pursuing teaching careers at the college level.

The AICPA fellowship is designed for minority students pursuing or planning to pursue a doctorate in accounting.

Five scholarships are available to provide financial assistance to graduate students pursuing studies in accounting and plan on earning CPA licensure.

This fellowship provides financial support to female scholars conducting research and economic analysis into natural resource, food, or agricultural issues.

This renewable, four-year fellowship is designed to support a scholar’s work in the field of stewardship science: nuclear science, high density physics, and materials under extreme conditions and hydrodynamics.

This multi-year fellowship supports doctoral research in several fields, ranging from chemistry to geology, materials science to physics and connects fellows with NPSC employer partners.

The NWRI fellowship program is open to full-time doctoral students conducting water-based research in areas such as water quality, water treatment and technologies, water supplies and water resources.

Really think about your reasons for getting a PhD. Critically exam the support systems you have in place to get you through the journey: 50 percent of doctoral students suffer from depression. Utilize services like the counseling center on your college/university campuses to help you respond to the stressors that may occur with the transition.

ASSISTANTSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS AND LOANS

Graduate assistantships.

Graduate assistantships are a form of academic appointment and are provided by individual departments. Competitive in nature, they are typically awarded on the basis of the student’s academic accomplishments and potential in the graduate program of study. Most programs provide appointments for one year at time and students receive a tuition credit or waiver and monthly stipend. There are three types of assistantships: Teaching Assistantships, Assistant Lecturers, and Research Assistants.

Teaching assistants perform a range of support duties for faculty members at a university, including grading papers and teaching classes.

Lecturers may serve as instructors in the academic department where they are studying.

Research assistants conduct and assist faculty members with research projects in the student’s area of interest.

Fellowships

Fellowships are short-term funding opportunities (typically 9- to 12 months) provided to students in the form of tuition credits and/or stipends. They support a student’s graduate study in their field of choice, may assist them in their research, or gain professional training in an area of interest. Fellowships are competitive and are available in two types: University-based and External.

Individual schools, colleges, and departments at a university (e.g. College of Science, Department of English) may have endowed fellowships. Students are either nominated for an award by their department or may be open to an application process.

External fellowships are funded by foundations, government agencies and other groups and provide opportunities to study both in the US and abroad. For example, the Department of Defense offers the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship to engineering students studying in one of sixteen engineering specialties.

Corporations

Many companies and businesses have created scholarship, fellowship, and tuition reimbursement programs for their employees. Depending on the company, there may be a possibility it supports the graduate school efforts of its employees. Speak to the Human Resources department to learn more about the potential funding avenues available.

Graduate students may borrow funds from the federal government under two loan programs: William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program and the Federal Perkins Loan Program.

Private financial institutions, including banks and credit unions, offer unsecured educational loans to graduate students. These loans must be repaid with interest. The interest rates, loan amount, and repayment terms are based on the credit worthiness of the borrower.

Federal work study provides students with demonstrated financial need part-time job opportunities that allow them to earn income while they are in graduate school. The program focuses on placing students in community service situations related to the student’s academic course of study. A majority of jobs are on-campus, but some schools may have some off-campus jobs with nonprofit agencies and other groups. It is important to note that some universities may not allow students to use their federal work study for tuition, but other related expenses (e.g. books, fees).

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT: Lawrence Burns, PhD

What should a future phd student consider when selecting a program of   study .

Speaking in the humanities, a student is best advised, I think, to select the faculty member with whom he or she wishes to study rather than simply a program. This faculty member becomes the student’s mentor, a relationship that lasts well beyond graduate school years. Because the mentor becomes the student’s primary reference, his or her standing in the field can and does have an impact on pre- and post-doctoral grants a student might win as well as on the student’s success on the academic job market.

It is a delicate balance though, because one must also look at programs that have standing in a particular field and at institutions that can afford to fund their PhD students throughout their graduate years.

Much is made about the saturation of PhD graduates and not enough   positions — both in academic and the private sector. Should that dissuade   a student from pursuing a PhD?

Yes, of course. Again, a PhD is not something that comes easily, and it should not be pursued without a reason for it. On the other hand, for students who are committed to their fields, and for whom that field is a career choice, the PhD is still the only way into the university job market. 

There is a catch-22 in the world of post-graduate education. Research universities need to turn out research, and researchers often depend on their grad students to assist them–in all fields–and departments on their PhD candidates to teach many undergraduate courses. PhD students are thus recruited regardless of the job market for the PhD holders.

The challenges in funding the PhD for me were less about how am I going to pay for this degree, but making the adjustment from being a full-time salaried employee to now, taking a significant pay cut to serve as a graduate assistant.

EARNING OUTLOOK FOR PHD STUDENTS

Potential career earnings should be a significant part of the discussion when considering whether or not to pursue a doctoral degree. Completing an advanced program of study could increase an individual’s earning potential with their current or future employers.

Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals a direct correlation between educational attainment and career success—both in employment opportunities and annual salaries. Doctoral degree holders are some of the highest paid professionals in the country. The table below outlines the difference in earnings by degree level in 2014.

source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Earnings and Unemployment by Educational Attainment

• Industry or Business $97,700
• Government $82,000
• Nonprofit Organizations $72,500
• Other $70,000
• Academia $60,000

Source: National Science Foundation, Survey of Earned Doctorates

In turn, prospective students should consider how their sacrifice of time and money will pay off when they embark in their careers. Some professional fields have a higher return on investment than others. A majority of PhD candidates endeavor to become tenured-track faculty members, but they should realize that academia is one of the lowest paying sectors for individuals with a doctoral degree.

A review of National Science Foundation survey information shows that the best paying professional areas for PhD graduates include Industry and Business—with an average salary of $97,700. At the bottom of the list? Academia.

MOST LUCRATIVE PHD CAREERS

So, which PhD degrees pay the best?

According to the NSF, business, economics, and engineering are consistently among the best earning academic fields regardless of industry. The following tables outline the highest paying academic fields by professional area of work after graduation.

• Business Management and Administration $110,000
• Economics $82,000
• Engineering $79,000
• Health Sciences $70,000
• Education $60,000
• Business Management and Administration $135,000
• Economics $115,000
• Mathematics and Computer Information Sciences $115,000
• Geosciences $110,000
• Engineering $98,000
• Economics $112,500
• Business Management and Administration $96,590
• Engineering $96,500
• Mathematics and Computer Information Sciences $95,300
• Health Sciences $94,000
• Business Management and Administration $105,000
• Economics $100,000
• Mathematics and Computer Information Sciences $100,000
• Health Sciences $98,000

At the occupational level, 2012 employment research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed the best paying doctoral career was Physicist ($109,600), followed by Astronomers ($105,410), and Engineering Professors ($94,130).

Overall, the top 10 most lucrative PhD careers include the following:

• 1 Physicists $109,600
• 2 Astronomers $105,410
• 3 Engineering Professors $94,130
• 4 Economics Professors $90,870
• 5 Health Specialties Professors: $90,210
• 6 Agricultural Sciences Professors $86,260
• 7 Biochemists and Biophysicists $84,940
• 8 Forestry and Conservation Science Professors $84,090
• 9 Physics Professors $80,720
• 10 Medical Scientists $79,930

EXPERT SPOTLIGHT: Darren Pierre, PhD

How has earning a phd impacted you personally and professionally.

Personally, the PhD was an incredibly introspective process. I believe for many, they go into the PhD thinking one thing, and come out transformed by the experience. I learned and grew personally in how I harness my self-worth, I grew professionally in my ability to humble myself and authentically listen to the feedback given about my work.

Professionally, I move with a greater level of confidence, I have more insight into my own potential in ways I could have never imagined, and all of that propelled me to write my book, The Invitation to Love.

Through your own experience, what are the biggest mistakes   prospective PhD students make when choosing and/or funding their PhD?

The biggest mistake that perspective students make is doing the degree for the wrong reason. If you are doing the degree for any other reason that self-motivated factors, you will falter. Doing the PhD to cover areas of insecurity, or low self-worth; doing the PhD for the prestige or title sake, those reasons will have you floundering and faltering when the psychological stressors being to weigh heavy.

Did you create a roadmap--financially or academically--to stay on track to   completing your PhD?

Absolutely, you have to have a plan and work that plan. Each Sunday, I would develop the week's action plan, I would carve out everything from when I was doing assignments/research to when I would work out, everything was on a schedule so that even when the fog of the process set in, I had headlights (my schedule) that allowed me to drive consistently when the road ahead was hard to see.

PHD: BY THE NUMBERS

Doctoral education in the U.S. is a varied and broad system, one that has been growing in popularity. In the 2013-2014 academic year, more than 178,000 doctoral degrees were conferred to students nationally, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

• Doctoral Education Continues to Grow
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Dominate
• STEM Fields are the Most Popular
• Only Half of Students Earn a PhD in the Same Academic Field as their Master’s Degree
• Doctoral Degrees are an Investment in Time
• Primary Source of Funding Varies by Program

In its survey of earned doctorates, the National Science Foundation learned the number of doctoral recipients increased by nearly 30 percent between 2003 and 2013.

The most popular academic areas of study were Engineering and the Physical Sciences.

• Engineering 69.80%
• Physical Sciences 59.30%
• Health Sciences 53.60%
• Life Sciences 44.60%
• Other 38.90%
• Social Sciences 19.90%
• Humanities 9.10%
• Education -25.70%

Within the engineering and physical sciences disciplines, multiple sub-fields have been experiencing explosive interest and enrollments, with some programs (e.g. physics, materials science engineering) growing by more than 70 percent between 2003 and 2013.

• Other engineering 127.5%
• Materials science engineering 86.5%
• Aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering 74.5%
• Mechanical engineering 70.5%
• Electrical, electronics, and communication engineering 53.6%
• Chemical engineering 46.0%
• Computer and information sciences 119.1%
• Mathematics 83.0%
• Physics and astronomy 76.7%
• Geosciences 28.8%
• Chemistry 22.0%

According to NSF, the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields are the most popular doctoral areas of study.

• Life Sciences 23.3%
• Physical Sciences 17.6%
• Engineering 17.0%
• Social Sciences 15.9%
• Humanities 10.7%
• Education 9.4%

Interestingly, slightly more than 56 percent of graduate students continue into a doctoral program in the same field as their master’s degree. Rates are highest in the humanities, engineering, and social sciences fields.

• Humanities 67.6%
• Engineering 65.7%
• Social Sciences 65.6%
• Education 61.5%
• All Fields 56.1%
• Physical Sciences 53.4%
• Life Sciences 35.5%

It requires approximately 7.5 years of study for the average graduate student to complete a doctoral degree after enrolling in graduate school. Education takes the longest — more than 11 years, while the physical sciences and engineering fields only require 6.5 to 6.6 years of study to complete.

• Education 11.7
• Humanities 9.2
• Social Sciences 7.7
• All Fields 7.5
• Life Sciences 6.9
• Engineering 6.6
• Physical Sciences 6.5

According to the NSF, the most common source of funding for doctoral students are teaching and research assistantships. The table below details the primary source of funding for students by academic area of study.

• Life Sciences Fellowships/ Grants
• Physical Sciences Research Assistantships
• Social Sciences Teaching Assistantships
• Engineering Research Assistantships
• Education Own Resources
• Humanities Teaching Assistantships
• All Fields Research Assistantships

The following table includes a breakout of the primary funding source by major field of study, according the National Science Foundation.

Source: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/2013/data-tables.cfm

ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL AID RESOURCES

The ultimate financial goal of any PhD student should be to complete their program successfully and move into a professional career with as little debt as possible. The resources below are available to help students locate scholarships and other funding sources that can help make that goal a reality.

Unigo offers a selection of financial assistance resources for graduate students, including a scholarship directory, a scholarship match tool, educational information on student loans and funding options, and more.

Scholarships.com is a website that provides a selection of financial aid information, including a searchable scholarship directory, insights into funding trends, financial aid calculators, and information about grants and fellowships.

Peterson’s is an educational resource site that includes a searchable scholarship database, articles and advice columns, and a catalog of graduate school profiles.

FinAid.org is an educational resource site that focuses on financial aid and offers information about student loans, federal financial aid, financing a doctoral education, and includes a scholarship search option.

An office of the U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid is the country’s largest provider of financial aid. Graduate students can learn about and pally for loans, grants, and work-study funds to pay for their doctoral education.

FastWeb is a financial aid-focused website that offers a searchable scholarship directory that allows students to focus their search to their major area of study, work experience, and personal and professional activities.

Chegg is an online educational portal that not only offers used textbooks, but a scholarship database as well.

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How to Find PhD Scholarships and Grants

Financing your PhD studies can be challenging, but it's essential to your academic journey. Scholarships and grants can ease this burden, although finding and securing them may seem daunting. 

Navigating your financial prospects can present a challenge, but scholarships and grants are there as available resources. In this blog, we will explain the opportunities to fund your PhD. We’ll also provide practical advice to help you find the right funding options for your PhD. Our guidance aims to give you a strong foundation for success.

Finding Doctoral Scholarships and Grants

Finding funding for graduate studies can be stressful, but scholarships and grants are available if you know where to look. 

• University Funding: Universities often offer scholarships and research grants to PhD students. For instance, the SMU provides various funding options for doctoral students through the Moody School for Graduate and Advanced Studies.
• Professional Associations: Depending on your field of study, grants are often available from professional associations. Have a look at your specific discipline’s association website or reach out to them directly.
• Government and Non-Government Organizations: Both government and non-government organizations offer grants to encourage research in various fields. Explore resources like Grant.gov and The National Science Foundation.
• Industry Partners: Companies often work with universities to fund research in their industry, supporting specific projects or areas of study.
• International Scholarships: International students can find PhD scholarships in the USA, like Fulbright and DAAD .

Essential Scholarship Application Tips

• Start Early: Keep in mind that securing funding takes time, so don’t wait to start your search. The application deadline is often way before the program application deadline.
• Be Thorough and Organized: Keeping track of deadlines, application components and other details can be overwhelming. Create a system that helps you keep everything organized and in one place.
• Tailor Your Applications: Tailor each application to the specific sponsor to maximize its appeal. Remember to show why you’re a perfect fit for their funding.
• Leverage Your Network: Don't hesitate to use your academic network. Professors, colleagues, and alumni can be valuable resources for scholarship and grant opportunities.

Grants and Scholarships for PhD Students vs. Other Forms of Aid

Initially, most students think of scholarships as a lifeline for PhD funding , but it's surprisingly uncommon for students to fund their PhD with scholarships alone. Can you get a scholarship for a PhD? Absolutely. But scholarships for doctoral students can be quite competitive.

In reality, most PhD students utilize a variety of funding sources. PhD programs commonly offer doctoral assistantships and fellowships, which are typically more widely available. Some students even explore additional routes like postgraduate loans, employer support, crowdfunding, and research council grants.

Knowing the ins and outs of each type of funding can help you make a decision that best suits your academic and financial needs. 

Scholarships

Scholarships, financial awards you don't need to repay, often reward merit or specific factors like demographics or career aspirations.

• Doesn't require repayment
• No obligation to perform services

Potential drawbacks:

• High competition
• May need exceptional qualifications

Grants operate much like scholarships in that they do not need to be repaid. They are frequently awarded based on need, although some may also take into consideration academic merit or field of study.

Benefits: 

• Doesn’t require repayment
• Can offset a significant amount of educational expenses

Potential drawbacks: 

• Competition can be fierce
• May have to meet eligibility criteria or conditions

Assistantships & Fellowships

Assistantships and fellowships are also common ways to pay for a PhD.  Assistantships involve providing services to the university by undertaking teaching or research roles, usually in exchange for a stipend and tuition waiver. Fellowships, like scholarships, are merit-based and don't require repayment or work in return. Fellowships usually offer generous resources and are specific to the student's field of study.

• Provide hands-on experience in teaching or research (assistantship)
• Accompanied by generous funding and resources (fellowship)
• Fellowships often provide greater freedom for research compared to assistantships
• Time commitment can impact personal studies (mainly assistantships)
• High competition may require exceptional qualifications or research proposals

While fellowships, assistantships, grants and scholarships for PhD programs aim to reduce the financial burden, they’re understandably different in their commitments, benefits, and application process. 

Discover PhD Funding at SMU

Finding and securing the right funding for your PhD is crucial in shaping a stress-free and productive doctoral journey. Remember, scholarships and grants, while beneficial, are just pieces of a wider resource puzzle that may include assistantships or fellowships. 

These funding options are aimed to ease your financial commitments, so explore opportunities for each, align them with your academic goals, and pave your way towards a rewarding PhD experience .

For more helpful resources or information about SMU's Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, contact us — we're here to help you on your academic journey!

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30 Fully Funded Ph.D. Programs

These fully funded Ph.D. programs are in fields like business, computer science, education and nursing.

(Getty Images) |

Many Ph.D. programs are fully funded.

Students interested in graduate research in various fields, from public health and English to computer science and engineering, have numerous options for Ph.D. programs that offer full funding. These programs typically provide waived tuition and fees and an annual stipend. Some also offer health insurance and other benefits. Gaining admittance into these small cohorts can be highly competitive, and the programs can be time-consuming . Here are 30 fully funded Ph.D. programs at U.S. colleges and universities. Keep in mind this is not a comprehensive list – there are others out there.

• Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago

Anthropology Ph.D. students at the University of Chicago can receive funding for up to eight years of study, assuming they are in good standing at the university. During that time, they will receive a full-tuition scholarship plus health insurance and a living stipend – which equated to $33,000 for the 2022-2023 school year – and can apply for external fellowships.

Ph.D. in biological sciences in public health at Harvard University (MA)

Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston offers a Ph.D. in biological sciences in public health that aims to provide students with expertise in disease prevention and treatment. This program includes tuition, a stipend and health insurance for five years as long as the student maintains satisfactory academic progress. International students receive the same benefits. Current research in the school's laboratories involves diseases like AIDS, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, malaria and tuberculosis.

(Dominick Reuter) |

• Ph.D. in business at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Students enrolled in the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology can study a range of fields like organization studies, accounting and information technology. Those pursuing a Ph.D. will receive a full-tuition scholarship plus a monthly stipend of $4,267, capped at $51,204. They will also receive medical insurance, new laptops at the beginning of their first and fourth years of study and $4,500 over five years for conference travel expenses.

(Tommy Lavergne | Rice University)

Ph.D. in business at Rice University (TX)

At the Rice University Jones Graduate School of Business in Texas, students enjoy full financial assistance upon admission to the Ph.D. program. Aiming to prepare students to teach in fields like accounting, finance, organizational behavior and strategic management, the program provides students with a research or teaching assistantship. Students receive a tuition waiver and a $40,000 annual stipend contingent on making satisfactory academic progress and maintaining full-time student status.

Office of Strategic Communication | University of Iowa

• Ph.D. in business at the University of Iowa

The University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business offers Ph.D. degrees in fields such as accounting, economics, business analytics and marketing. The college says it provides full funding to "virtually all admitted students." This includes tuition and fees, a minimum nine-month stipend of about $20,000 with annual adjustments and comprehensive health insurance covered at 90%. Some departments offer funding for research presentations at major conferences, summer fellowships and paid time off for independent research.

Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Cornell University (NY)

According to Cornell University 's website, all students admitted to the chemical engineering Ph.D. program at the New York school receive a full tuition waiver, health insurance and a stipend. This funding can come from a teaching assistantship, research assistantship or fellowship, and full stipends are granted for nine months with the likelihood of additional aid in the summer.

Chris Taggart | Columbia University

Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Columbia University (NY)

Students enrolled in Columbia University 's Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at the Teachers College in New York receive fully funded tuition and a $25,000 stipend annually for three years. The stipend also carries into a student's fourth year. These doctoral fellows "may be expected to serve" as graduate teaching or research assistants. Students typically complete the mentor-matched program, which includes a full-year internship, in five to seven years.

Ph.D. in computer science at Brown University (RI)

Brown University 's Ph.D. students in computer science have access to "full financial support while completing the degree," plus the option to take classes at nearby schools without incurring additional costs, according to the school's website. In fact, doctoral students in any program at the Rhode Island university are guaranteed five years of financial support, which includes tuition remission, a stipend, health services fees and a subsidy for health insurance.

Georgetown University |

Ph.D. in computer science at Georgetown University (DC)

Georgetown University 's Ph.D. program in computer science provides scholarships and assistantships that cover full tuition at the Washington, D.C., school and include a stipend and health insurance for the first five years. Once enrolled in the program, students must complete the Apprenticeship in Teaching Program and ultimately write and defend a full research dissertation in a seminar open to the public.

Ph.D. in computer science at Washington University in St. Louis

Ph.D. students in the computer science or computer engineering program at Washington University in St. Louis receive full tuition support and health insurance. According to the university's website: "As a doctoral candidate, you will also receive a generous stipend to cover living expenses and a new, high-end Apple laptop computer. This support is guaranteed as you continue to make satisfactory progress towards your degree." Doctoral students may also qualify for one of three fellowships.

Jeff Miller | UW-Madison

• Ph.D. in counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin—Madison

Incoming Ph.D. students at the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin—Madison are guaranteed full funding for the duration of the time that they are expected on campus, according to the university's department of counseling psychology website. Doctoral students also receive a benefits package that includes health insurance. Funding may come from financial aid, fellowships, assistantships and/or traineeships.

Emory University |

Ph.D. in economics at Emory University (GA)

Students enrolled in the economics Ph.D. program at Emory University typically receive full funding, according to the Georgia university's website. The stipend provided to students is $36,376 per year for five years, starting in fall 2023, and the full tuition scholarship is worth $70,200 per year. Funding for admitted students also includes a $4,370 annual subsidy that covers 100% of a student's cost of health insurance. First-year students have no stipend-related work requirements.

• Ph.D. in education at New York University

New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development offers more than 30 degree programs. Many can be pursued on campus or online. Ph.D. degrees are offered in areas like developmental psychology, educational leadership and childhood education. Full-time NYU Steinhardt Ph.D. students are eligible for a funding package that includes an annual stipend – $32,000 for the 2022-2023 academic year – tuition coverage for required coursework and student health insurance for five years.

L.A. Cicero, Stanford News Service |

Ph.D. in education at Stanford University (CA)

Stanford University's Graduate School of Education allows students numerous fellowship and assistantship opportunities at the California school, along with a "five-year funding guarantee that provides tuition aid, fellowship stipend, and assistantship salary, and covers the standard cost of attendance," the program website reads. At the Graduate School of Education, doctoral students can choose from a range of academic areas like curriculum studies and teacher education, and developmental and psychological sciences.

• Ph.D. in education at the University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education provides full funding to Ph.D. students as part of a fellowship and research apprenticeship package. This funding includes a living stipend, health insurance and coverage of tuition and fees for up to four years if the student maintains full-time enrollment. Some students may also qualify for additional summer funding.

• Ph.D. in engineering at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

Doctoral students in engineering at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor can choose from numerous areas of specialization under umbrella categories like aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, macromolecular science and engineering, and robotics. All engineering doctoral students are guaranteed full funding, a monthly living stipend and health insurance. The exact amount can vary, according to the program's website, and funding comes from a range of sources, including graduate student instructor positions and fellowships.

Boston University Photography |

• Ph.D. in English at Boston University

Annually, doctoral students studying English at Boston University receive a stipend plus full tuition, fees and basic health insurance. This funding is guaranteed for at least five years, with two of those years typically free from teaching requirements. Funding can sometimes be extended up to seven years, according to the university's website, but it's not guaranteed. Students may also apply for various prizes, fellowships and short-term research and travel grants.

(Stephanie Diani) |

• Ph.D. in English at the University of California—Los Angeles

Applicants to the Ph.D. in English program at the University of California—Los Angeles are automatically considered for various funding options. A six-year funding package includes "a minimum of two years of full fellowship, four years of summer stipend support and up to four years of teaching assistantships," according to the school website. Beyond tuition, fees and health insurance are also covered.

Jeff Watts |

Ph.D. in international relations at American University (DC)

American University offers doctoral students in its international relations program who do not have external funding a renewable four-year Dean's Fellowship that is contingent on making satisfactory academic progress. The fellowship includes the cost of tuition, fees and a stipend that must be earned via a part-time role as a teaching or research assistant. Students also must "demonstrate competency in a modern foreign language" before graduating.

Jonathan Cohen | Binghamton University

• Ph.D. in management at Binghamton University—SUNY

All students admitted to the interdisciplinary management Ph.D. program at the Binghamton University—SUNY School of Management in New York receive a combination of a full-tuition scholarship and a teaching or research assistantship for each academic year, up to four years. This STEM-designated business doctoral degree prepares students for careers in academia and work in the public and private sectors, and has a student-faculty ratio of 1-to-1, according to the university's website.

Duke University Communications |

Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Duke University (NC)

Doctoral students at Duke University in North Carolina studying materials science and engineering generally receive full tuition, a stipend and fee support for the first five years. Students also receive up to six years of health insurance if they are on the university's student medical insurance plan. The doctoral program aims to help students publish with a faculty adviser and develop research skills, with the opportunity to present research at professional conferences.

Homewood Photography | JHU

Ph.D. in nursing at Johns Hopkins University (MD)

The School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland provides most doctoral students with three fully funded years of study. Available financial aid includes graduate assistantships, targeted fellowships and nursing-specific funding. The university aims to "advance the theoretical foundation of nursing practice and healthcare delivery" with the degree, its website reads. "By graduation, most Hopkins nurse scholars have been awarded grants that continue their research and set them well on their way to a successful career."

• Ph.D. in nursing at the University of Virginia

All students admitted to the University of Virginia 's Ph.D. in Nursing program are eligible for four years of scholarship funding to cover tuition, insurance and fees, as well as annual stipends. To receive certain aid, students must work 10 hours per week as a graduate teaching assistant. With a heavy research focus, students can expect courses in qualitative, quantitative and historical research, and will have to submit a research proposal for peer review.

Ph.D. in nursing at Yale University (CT)

At Yale University in Connecticut, the School of Nursing offers full funding to its Ph.D. students. They receive a monthly stipend for four years in addition to paid tuition and health care. The program allows students to gain in-depth knowledge in a particular area of study. Every incoming Ph.D. student gets paired with a faculty adviser "whose area of expertise and active research most closely matches with the student’s scholarly interest," according to the school's website.

University of Minnesota |

• Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program to study psychology at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities are guaranteed full funding for five years as long as they maintain satisfactory performance and degree progress. This funding includes full-time tuition, a nine-month stipend and subsidized health insurance. Funding comes from some combination of teaching assistantships, traineeships, research assistantships and fellowships. Students in the program can specialize in areas like cognitive and brain sciences, industrial-organizational psychology and social psychology.

Matt Cashore | University of Notre Dame

Ph.D. within the Romance languages and literatures department at the University of Notre Dame (IN)

University of Notre Dame doctoral students who focus on French and Francophone studies, Iberian and Latin American studies or Italian studies are guaranteed five years of funding. Funding includes a full scholarship, including tuition and fees, plus a stipend and health insurance. Anyone who completes the Ph.D. degree requirements at the Indiana university within five years will automatically receive a one-year postdoctoral fellowship via the university's 5+1 Program. Fellows will have a teaching load limited to one course per semester.

Ph.D. in social work at Bryn Mawr College (PA)

Students admitted to Bryn Mawr College 's Ph.D. program in social work receive full tuition waivers and "substantial stipends" toward living expenses. The Pennsylvania college's website says: "Consistent with our model, all Ph.D. students are funded equally, and do not compete for basic financial support during coursework." The program's cohorts typically include only three or four students each year. According to the college, it awarded the first Ph.D. degree in social work in the U.S. in 1920.

Vanderbilt University |

Ph.D. in special education at Vanderbilt University (TN)

Funding is guaranteed for all admitted doctoral students enrolled in the special education Ph.D. program at the Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. This includes full tuition, a "competitive" monthly stipend and health insurance for up to four years. Students may also be nominated for additional honor scholarships and fellowships. Areas of focus within the Ph.D. program include high-incidence disabilities and early childhood education.

Ph.D. in theatre and drama at Northwestern University (IL)

This interdisciplinary Ph.D. program at Northwestern University in Illinois combines coursework in humanities, social science and the visual arts. The program's students receive a five-year full-tuition scholarship plus an annual living stipend. Ph.D students enrolling at this program in fall 2022 will receive a living stipend of at least $36,960 during the 2023-2024 school year. Stipend amounts may change from year to year. Students can apply for subsidies to facilitate conference travel and summer language study.

(Photo by Sarah L. Voisin | The Washington Post via Getty Images)

• Ph.D. in women, gender and sexuality studies at University of Maryland

At the University of Maryland 's Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ph.D. students without a master's degree usually have five years of guaranteed funding. Those with a master's degree usually are funded four years, with awards stemming from a mix of departmental fellowships and graduate teaching assistantships. Since the program's establishment in 1999, the department has granted 36 Ph.Ds, according to UMD's website.

Learn more about paying for graduate school.

Finding a fully funded program isn't the only option to offset the costs of graduate school. See these seven strategies to pay for graduate school to learn more. Check out the latest Best Graduate Schools rankings to see the country's top business, medicine and law programs – and more. For additional grad school tips, follow U.S. News Education on Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn .

Ph.D. programs that are fully funded

• Ph.D. in biological sciences in public health at Harvard University
• Ph.D. in business at Rice University
• Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Cornell University
• Ph.D. in clinical psychology at Columbia University
• Ph.D. in computer science at Brown University
• Ph.D. in computer science at Georgetown University
• Ph.D. in computer science at Washington University—St. Louis
• Ph.D. in economics at Emory University
• Ph.D. in education at Stanford University
• Ph.D. in international relations at American University
• Ph.D. in materials science and engineering at Duke University
• Ph.D. in nursing at Johns Hopkins University
• Ph.D. in nursing at Yale University
• Ph.D. within the romance languages and literatures department at the University of Notre Dame
• Ph.D. in social work at Bryn Mawr College
• Ph.D. in special education at Vanderbilt University
• Ph.D. in theatre and drama at Northwestern University

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Savage Minds

Notes and queries in anthropology, no funding don’t do it (on getting a phd in anthropology).

The following is another installment for the Anthropologies/Savage Minds issue on Student Debt.

Well, it’s that time of year when prospective grad students around the country are anxiously pacing around their mailboxes waiting for responses from all the PhD programs they applied to.  Many are wondering who accepted them, who rejected them, and, of course, if they got funding.  That’s the big question.  Getting a full-funding offer is the highest mark of acceptance and application success.  It’s like getting the golden seal of academic and departmental approval.  It means you’re in.

Getting accepted without a funding offer is a not-so-wonderful middle ground.  Like getting a happy-face sticker that says “Great Job!” when you really needed a paycheck.  It feels sort of like acceptance, but there’s something hollow about it.  A lot of people decide to enter PhD programs without funding, thinking that at least it gets them in the door.  If they happen to have piles of extra money on hand, or family support, or a full-time job, or maybe even a partner who is working, it might be a reasonable choice.  Might being a key word there.  But many people simply don’t have access to those kinds of financial resources.  In these post-economic crash, disintegration-of-the-university-as-we-knew-it times, I think more students need to seriously reconsider entering PhD programs without full funding.  Why?  Because it doesn’t make any sense to go into debt trying to get a PhD in anthropology (let alone plenty of other disciplines).  Sarah Kendzior said it best on twitter not too long ago :

Do not do a PhD program unless you are guaranteed full funding for every year. Use the system, don't let it use you. — Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) January 13, 2014

If the funding isn’t there, don’t do it!* Don’t get used.  Look at your options.  If you have been “accepted,” but without funding, think long and hard about the decision.  Pay close attention to the numbers of people in debt, the academic job market (a PhD is geared toward producing academics, after all), and other factors like rent and cost of living.  More importantly, think about how you are going to cover your costs.  If you’re thinking that student loans are a good option, think again.  Take the time to read up about student loans , and why accepting them might be a very, very bad idea.  One glaring issue is a lack of basic consumer protections for borrowers :

Student debt is treated more harshly than any other type of debt in America. Unlike your mortgage, business, credit card or even gambling debts, student loan debt cannot be discharged in bankruptcy and there is no statute of limitations on the collections of student loan debt. As a result, more than 40 Million Americans are buried under approximately $1.2 Trillion worth of student debt and more than 7 Million of those people have defaulted on their student loans, causing major financial hardships from which there is almost no escape.

Here’s what the lack of consumer protections means: You can go out and spend $50,000 on credit cards and file for bankruptcy.  You can run a massive, corrupt corporation like Enron and file for bankruptcy.  You can buy a house that you can’t afford and you still have consumer protections.  You can even gamble away thousands of dollars and still get those protections.  But if you go to school and amass thousands of dollars in debt, no dice.  You are stuck with those loans, thanks in part to the wonderful lobbyists (like folks from Sallie Mae) who worked hard to do away with consumer protections :

Sallie Mae’s lobbying efforts were recently described by The New York Times as “aggressive” i   spending $37,490,000 on lobbying from 1998 to 2012. i i   This year, Sallie Mae has already spent $1,230,000 on federal lobbying, working against several consumer protection bills, including the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2013 and Fairness for Struggling Students Act of 2013. i i i   Both pieces of legislation call for increased regulation of private banks with a history of bad lending practices.

Even if you do get a full-funding offer, take a close look at the numbers.  Look at the amount of the stipend, the time expectations coming from the department, and travel expenses related to doing fieldwork (this last one is huge).  As Karen Kelsky pointed out with her PhD debt survey a few months back , full-funding often isn’t enough.  This is definitely the case in anthropology, which, due to fieldwork requirements, certainly isn’t cheap.  One of the issues with fieldwork is that many of your costs back home can’t be covered by fieldwork grants.  And trust me, it’s not easy to keep up with your costs while you’re away doing fieldwork, unless you’re some sort of roaming free-spirit without any possessions, connections, bills, or previous obligations.  Even students with funding often end up taking out student loans to cover those “extra” expenses.  Again, this warrants a deep look into the pluses and minuses of student loans (see above).  These are the kinds of things you don’t hear too much about until you’re well into the thick of grad school.  Better to know sooner rather than later.

At some point we might want to think about how all of this debt is affecting the actual practice and meaning of anthropology.  Think about this: if we’re graduating a flood of students who are deep in debt, what kind of “anthropology” are we really producing in the end, and how does that bode for all of our big talk about “public engagement”?  Especially since the students of anthropology are one of the discipline’s primary public audiences.  Teaching is, after all, on the front lines of what many refer to as “public anthropology”.  It is one way we get the message out into the world.  But what message are we sending?  What does it mean for anthropology when our institutions are burying a huge percentage of our own in debilitating debt, while the rest of us just stand by and watch?

That’s a discussion for another post.  In the meantime, don’t get used.  Avoid debt at all costs.

*Note: Some folks might respond to this by saying something like “But if the only people who get PhD’s are those who have the money or resources, then graduate school is going to become little more than an elitist institution for the rich!” My response: It already is. Encouraging more people to go into debt isn’t going to change that.

19 thoughts on “ No funding? Don’t do it! (on getting a PhD in anthropology) ”

The nasty reality in anthropology is that only the grads from the top 10 universities are the only ones likely to get a job. I am sooo glad I am retired.

Wish I’d taken this advice when I was in school. Instead I took the school at its word that more and would come as I demonstrated my ability. Well, top of my class year in and year out and that magical and never materialized, as I sank deeper and deeper into Sallie Mae bondage. Was it worth it? Pretty much no. And as the article points out, student loan debt is tenacious and missteps virtually non-recoverable – once you screw up, you STAY screwed up.

Jay: that’s a nasty reality alright.

Dustin: I wish I had known about this about seven years ago. I made the assumption that taking out loans for grad school was a “good investment.” Turns out that’s not really the case. Now one of my goals is to get this information out to others who are thinking about the grad school/PhD programs. It blows my mind that consumer protections have been stripped away from student loans–of all things.

Thanks for the comments.

There aren’t enough real jobs for anthropologists or other academics any more. The deeper you go into it the more committed you are to it. It’s a very dangerous path. No one thinks the situation is on its way to improving. Once you are done with your Ph.D. and are on the market, all the other Ph.D.s finishing in your year are just the beginning of your competition, since those who finished years before and have more experience are trying to get the same jobs you are. Some of them already have good jobs and are looking for better ones while others are from the ranks of the partially employed and adjunct. Then let’s say you do get that great job. You’ll be teaching students a subject for which there is no work and at least implicitly luring them into the same scam. Is this the future you want for yourself?

Completely agree. I took a bank loan for my master’s (14 percent interest!) and graduated right into the middle of recession. Had to pay off my loan working in a bar. I do want to do a PhD now, but only if i get a fully-funded one, full stop.

This is good advice, which I’ve given to many people over the years. For the record, though, I took out substantial student loans to pay for my undergrad and grad degrees, and then went on to get a job and tenure. Of course, I was hired pre-2008 when times were different. I’m still paying off my loans and will be for… god what, until my kids are ready to take some out for college? But it is worth emphasizing that loans may sometimes and in certain situations be a necessary evil, even if they often appear to just be Pure Concentrated Evil.

Hey Rex. Ya, loans are a reasonable risk if there’s something on the other side to balance the debt. Right now people are racking up massive debt and realizing there’s nowhere to land. Not good. So getting the PhD just isn’t worth all the debt.

Are loans a necessary evil? Maybe sometimes, as you say. But they look a lot like PCE when they have been completely stripped of all protections. More grads need to know exactly what they’re getting into. The whole deal with credit is that lending is a risk…but when consumer protections are gone, the game is rigged.

I can sympathise very much with this post. In the Netherlands we have something called an ‘external PhD candidate’, which is what I am. Basically it means you don’t have to be part of the faculty, except for the time you have and the contact with your supervisors. In my case I just hand in chapters, they read them and provide comments. The faculty also provides me with access to electronic journals. This is not like they are providing charity to me, as they get $ 125K from the state for my thesis if I finish it (while I get $ 0).

Couldn’t find anything in the USA resembling this, does it exist?

It strikes me as highly unfair to have to take on loans to get a PhD, if that money is to pay for some institution. Basically it looks to me like a crude form of feudal surplus extraction (though perhaps without the $ 125K of state money it would be the same here).

Academia = feudalism for geeks?

I hear the bittterness and disappointment. Having learned to be a knowledge producer may confer benefits in the consultant field outside of academia. Other models to engage with the public and academics like OSEARCH are in their infancy. You need to be more entreprenurial. University systems are expanding in Asia and the Middle East. Take heart, you may yet thrive.

I have said for years “if you do not have a long term funding offer, do not accept.” Often, that means taking another year to apply to the ‘second choice’ schools, honing your applications, letters, and writing samples, and hoping that you’ll receive a funding offer from one of them. I have watched friends and colleagues rack up debt from $30 000 for those who use loans to supplement crappy stipends to $100 000 for those who have rarely, if ever had semesters of funding.

As an international student attending programs in the U.S. I did not have the option of loans, I had to demonstrate that I had ____ years of finances already accounted for (in my bank or agreed upon by the school) before my documents would go through. The totals were somewhere in the order of $25 000 – $35 000/year. Demonstrating these numbers, especially when moving on from MA to PhD and renewing my papers (5 yrs to get the PhD according to the Gov’t) takes some creative financing. I always managed to do this through funding, savings, and creativity without taking out loans. Throughout my degrees I have managed a horse farm, trained showhorses and galloped racehorses , taken on consultation contracts doing project and instrument development, data analyses, and project evaluation all while raising my kids and excelling in my graduate work. It has been emotionally and physically exhausting.

Now, faced with the prospect of two things, I am having to re-evaluate finishing my PhD. With no funding for the final phase of field research and the reality that my PhD is actually placing me out of reach for the applied/policy work that I would like to do, I am having to consider whether finishing the dissertation is really worth it. Luckily, debt in the order of tens of thousands of dollars is not a part of this decision.

My story and my experiences are in no way unique. There were many semesters that I would have gladly pulled loans to get out from under the yoke of working 19 hour days to make ends meet and fulfill my academic duties. In hindsight, I am glad I didn’t. If you look closely, as I have, there are hundreds of people like me (ABD liminality) and perhaps thousands of the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’, indebted and still struggling. The entire process needs to be re-evaluated, and prospective students need to be fully informed about the graduate school experience in anthropology. Thanks to sites like this and authors like Ryan, this is finally happening in an open and honest way.

There are some interesting projects developing to deal with the problem of student debt. This one uses a rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) model in which indebted students contribute and support each other in paying off debts. A compelling idea because it addresses the problem of interest compounding, but I don’t know the details about how they’re going to ensure cooperation. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Student-Jubilee/221162284723460

For anyone who is fresh out of undergrad and has never had a job, this is great advice.

However, it is not the best advice for anyone who already has a resume or an MA/MS. Before you accept that golden funding, do your homework on what the benefits actually are. In my case, I needed a job that makes only $24/hour at 20 hours a week (without benefits) to make the same amount as my funded colleagues (including stipend, tuition, and health insurance). I luckily found a job that made more than that. So, I didn’t apply for funding.

There are some serious benefits to not taking funding as well. (1) Your 20 hour work week is usually exactly 20 hours a week. Not around 20 hours a week depending on the class you TA or teach or the whim of the faculty member you work for. (2) When you don’t want to be full-time, because your requirements are done or you want to explore other projects for a semester or you want to focus on non-class requirements, do it. You can’t do that while you are funded. When you are funded, most programs make you stay enrolled full time until you are ABD, which for most people I know meant taking much much longer to get to ABD status. It is much easier to cram all of your requirements up front and then take 1 credit independent studies each semester after to leisurely pass your exams, write your dissertation proposal and apply for grants. (3) Thanks to Obamacare, you can now get affordable health insurance with better benefits (esp. maternity care and coverage for your spouse and dependents). So, even your healthcare is better without funding. (4) When you graduate, you have actual job experience that doesn’t include TAing, which —let’s face it— in today’s job market can get exactly one job: adjuncting (unless you are one of the privileged few who get a tenure track position out of the gates). If you build a skill on the side like web design, graphic design, brand consulting or something related to your interests, you will look better to non-academic employers.

That said, however, I very much agree with not putting yourself in debt to get your PhD. (Unless you are using it pay in monthly installments as you go like me, paying off each semester by the end of it.).

Being a fully-funded PhD is nice. But it is not the only option and in many cases is not the best option.

I’m currently waiting to hear on funding so this applies to me. It’s looking like Year 1 will be funded and after that things are looking ambiguous. At the same time, I’m already making under 30K a year with an Anthro BA and my current job is not very fulfilling. From the perspective of a 24 year old, it’s difficult for me to not jump at the opportunity.

@Marcus: I think “feudalism for geeks” might sum it up perfectly…

@Sheri: Hopefully more and more people will be looking into–and creating–new ways of doing anthropology outside the usual academic model.

@Alissa: thanks. Your story is one more example that shows the diversity of experiences when it comes to grad school. Part of the problem in my opinion is that the actual process of grad school is sort of a black box before you get in, and once you’re in you have to try to figure out how to pull it off. I agree with you that a lot more open and honest conversation about what’s going on is definitely in order. If anything, I’m hoping that future grad students can start the process a lot more informed than I was. Maybe then things will start changing.

@Erin thanks for the ROSCA link. Never heard of that. Sounds intriguing. And ya, my first question was how you would get people to join in and stay in.

@Angela: thanks for the detailed comment. You bring up a lot of very good points. I was hinting at some of that in the second part of my post (when I talked about the amount of stipends, time commitments, etc), but you spelled it out much more clearly. As you point out, funding comes with a lot of strings attached, and if we start taking a close look at all the time and expectation, coupled with not-so-great stipends, in many cases it could be a much better idea to work 20 hours elsewhere, potentially make more money, and not be on the obligation hook. These are exactly the kinds of discussions about grad school I’d like to see more of.

Arianna: That’s a tough position. Try to get as much information as you can so you can make the best decision possible. One year of funding is going to come and go quickly, and being in limbo after that could get difficult. Sometimes, as Alissa said above, it’s a good idea to wait for another year, put some time into new applications and letters, and aim for funding from some other programs (or perhaps even reapplying to some of the same ones). I was in the same boat as you when I applied to grad school (not great pay, didn’t love my job), but looking back I wish I had been a bit more careful with some of my decisions. Take your time–it’s a big decision and there’s no sense in rushing the grad school thing. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for all the great comments everyone. Good stuff.

Good blog and the comments are also quite interesting. I applied to 6 or 7 grad schools and received fellowships or grants to 5, selecting the grad school which offered the best grant, of 3 years. That was Berkeley. Even then, I would not have entered a grad school without some form of support, which was and continues to be an indicator of perceived success. While having done a visiting professorship, I did switch to working in the international development arena and am not at all sorry for that choice.

I’ve been thinking of how to respond to this blog post and some of the comments (not all of which I have read, so I do apologize if what I end up saying is redundant), but I struggle at being an absolutist, so I’ll just be reflexive and honest.

On one hand, I agree with the message of the post. When I gained the legal capacity to make financial decisions about ten years ago, I made terrible decisions. Now that I’ve grown, learned about personal finance, and how I fit into the larger scheme of things, I can look back and see the destruction that I have wrought. The advice stated above falls in line with “just good decision making” practices. It is fiscally responsible to avoid the pursuit of a PhD until non-borrowed funding can be secured in one way or another. I, myself, have just finished my BA in December, and in the months leading up to New Year’s I applied to eight or nine programs, only one of which was not in a position to provide so-called “guaranteed full-funding.” (It was Berkeley, and I applied for a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for that reason.) My undergraduate advisors did not frame this issue of “cost” in terms of debt; I was not told not to pursue a PhD without funding, rather I was told that if I worked hard enough, there would be no question that I would receive full-funding.

This brings me to the “On the other hand.” I have very many friends with a BA in anthropology, many of whom worked very hard until the end to secure that sacred document, most of whom will make excellent anthropologists one day, and only one of whom actually secured full-funding for his PhD. I could never bear to look some of my more talented friends in the eye and tell them, “Maybe you shouldn’t pursue this if you have to rely on loans.” And so, in that respect, I would almost have to advocate for the position I took during my own undergraduate career: “If I’m going to take out nearly $40,000 in loans to get a BA, you better believe that I’m going to make it as worthwhile as possible.”

Back to the first hand: I made it so worthwhile during undergrad that I was privileged enough to be accepted to a PhD program with “guaranteed full-funding,” so I worry that advocating that same attitude to my friends-without-funding may just be the privilege talking. I think many of us are aware that even the best-of-the-best graduate students are not guaranteed the jobs they want post-PhD, Sarah Kendzior (mentioned in the post) among them. The system is definitely broken and the bubble is definitely going to pop, but I don’t know how advising the PhD-minded to avoid soul-crushing debt will or will not affect the timing, duration, or aftermath of that pop. As far as I can tell, this is more of a personal decision (Am I willing to be a “company man” at best, or a slave at worst to get what I want? Do I want to play “the game?”). Or is that my privilege, too?

tl;dr: I am embarrassed that I start this response claiming to understand “fiscal responsibility” and ending it with, “Just do it anyway.” As I said: I’m conflicted.

The emphasis on the “leveraging” of the cost is understandable, from both the student’s perspective and the professor’s; however, if I were to add an observation, it would be from the perspective of someone who went into interviews with professors sincerely interested in their research and publications, and who was met with astonishment in reply, because this was completely unexpected, in a context so dominated by these financial considerations.

I spoke to professors who were shocked (shocked!) that I had read their published work before I spoke to them; one responded with disbelief when I commented that he hadn’t published anything on an area (and a language) that he claimed expertise in and when, in reply, he claimed he had an unpublished thesis on it, I asked (very earnestly) how I would be able to get a copy.

The idea that students read and evaluate the work of the professors, and are interested in their professors’ competence (e.g., their language-ability, something verifiable) before making this type of (financially-binding) decision is, perhaps, the most unsettling aspect of all, for the people who are in the professors’ chairs. The economic uncertainty is “normal”, and precludes the possibility of other kinds of questions being asked.

The competence of both persons and institutions is often falsely advertised to students; I know of one graduate student who was forced (simply) to learn Vietnamese rather than Cambodian, although competence had been claimed (and courses promised) in the latter. So, this is the even more shadowy side of the value-for-money equation, from my perspective as a perpetual outsider.

I thought this post may interest some of the commenters who have seemed to see only one career trajectory for anthropology graduates of any level- “real jobs”. It tells the story of an anthro MA who (in the nicest possible way) wormed right into the core of a tech company and is not indispensable.

http://theprofessorisin.com/2014/03/24/i-made-myself-indispensable-day-2/

I thought this post may interest some of the commenters who have seemed to see only one career trajectory for anthropology graduates of any level- “real jobs”. It tells the story of an anthro MA who (in the nicest possible way) wormed right into the core of a tech company and is now indispensable.

Comments are closed.

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Top Fully Funded PhD Programs

Karla Ibarra is a content writer at Scholarships 360. She has worked as an English teacher and writing tutor. As a writing tutor, she has experience editing scholarships and college application essays. Karla graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in Communication and a minor in English.

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Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Fully funded PhD programs offer students seeking their doctor of philosophy degrees the ultimate experience. With the average cost of a PhD at nearly $100,000 , students are able to focus on their studies without worrying about paying for their degrees or living expenses. Keep reading to learn about some of the top fully funded PhD programs in a variety of majors.

What is a “Doctorate of Philosophy” degree?

A “doctorate of philosophy” degree, better known as a PhD, is among the highest level degrees in the United States. A PhD is awarded after the successful completion of an extensive research and writing project known as a dissertation. Students can earn a PhD in a variety of fields, with most majoring in the humanities or social sciences. 

Further reading: What is a PhD?

How we chose the fully funded PhD programs on our list

We looked for programs that have stellar reputations in their respective majors. It makes sense that the most reputable programs offer the resources that are most important to  PhD students. Working with distinguished professors in their field and having access to outstanding libraries, PhD students will be immersed in the ideal learning environment. 

Opportunities to learn under and network with the most well regarded academics is invaluable for students’ future careers. Finally, we looked for fully funded programs that include not only full tuition coverage, but also living stipends and health insurance. A few of the programs might require students to “give back” in the way of graduate assistantships , so keep that in mind as you read the fine print on each website. 

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The top fully funded phd programs.

The following list is in alphabetical order with no preference for one particular program. We included a variety of majors in different regions, but remember, this is just the start of an exhaustive listing of fully funded PhD programs across the USA and the world!

Boston College’s PhD in English

The PhD in English Program at Boston College prepares students for careers in academia or other English related fields. With a focus on critical thinking, writing, and research, the program explores  literature through abstract, cultural, and historical contexts. Students are able to focus on various literature periods, creative writing, and literary theory.. Working closely with renowned faculty, the program offers abundant resources and support services including fellowships and publishing opportunities. 

• Location: Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
• Focus of study : Creative writing, critical theory, and literary and cultural studies
• What is included : Full tuition remission, health insurance, and a living stipend

Brown University PhD in Computer Science

Brown University offers a PhD program in Computer Science for students interested in a strong foundation in computer science theory and applications and opportunities to conduct research in collaboration with faculty and peers. Brown’s computer science department has research strengths in artificial intelligence, data science, cybersecurity, computer graphics, and theory. The program is designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge needed to conduct independent research in computer science and to prepare them for academic or industrial careers.

• Location: Providence, Rhode Island
• Focus of study : Algorithms, artificial intelligence, computer systems, databases, and more
• What is included : Full tuition, health insurance, and living stipend

Cornell University PhD in Chemical Engineering 

Cornell University offers a PhD program in Chemical Engineering to provide students with a broad foundation in chemical engineering principles and their application to solving real-world problems. The program aims to train students in core courses in chemical engineering, including transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and reaction engineering, while providing them with opportunities to conduct original research. Students in the program have access to state-of-the-art research facilities, funding opportunities, and a supportive community of faculty and fellow students.

• Location: Ithaca, New York
• Focus of study : Chemical engineering principles and research topics including biotechnology, energy, materials science, and process systems engineering
• What is included: Full tuition waiver, stipend, and health insurance

Duke University PhD in Literature

Duke University’s PhD program in literature prepares students for careers in academic research and teaching. The program offers a variety of courses in literary theory, criticism, and methodology, as well as opportunities to specialize in specific genres, periods, and cultures. The program also encourages interdisciplinary work, with opportunities to collaborate with scholars in other fields across the university. Graduates of the program have gone on to careers in academia, publishing, journalism, and other areas.

• Location: Durham, North Carolina
• Focus of study : Literary theory, research methods, and a range of cultural and literary texts
• What is included : Five years of living stipend, tuition, and fees support as well as six years of health and dental insurance

Harvard University PhD Program in Biological Sciences in Public Health

The PhD program in Biological Sciences in Public Health at Harvard University is designed for students who want to pursue research in the field of public health with a focus on biological sciences. The program focuses on the intersection of biology and public health, specifically emphasizing understanding the biological mechanisms underlying disease and developing strategies to prevent and treat illness. PhD students receive a rigorous education in both biological and public health sciences, preparing them to become leaders in advancing our understanding of human health and disease.

• Location: Boston, Massachusetts
• Focus of study : Cancer biology, environmental health, genetics, global health and infectious diseases.
• What is included : Competitive funding packages, including tuition waivers, stipends, and health insurance

Johns Hopkins University PhD in Nursing

The PhD in Nursing program at Johns Hopkins University is designed to prepare nurse scientists who will conduct research to advance nursing science and improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. The program is designed to be interdisciplinary, integrating knowledge from nursing, social and behavioral sciences, and biostatistics. PhD students may work as nursing faculty members, researchers, or policymakers, contributing to advancing nursing practice and developing nursing knowledge.

• Location: Baltimore, Maryland
• Focus of study : Aging and dementia care, cardiovascular and chronic care, community and public health, health systems and outcomes, and more
• What is included: Full tuition with a stipend for the first three years of study

New York University PhD in Education

New York University offers a PhD in Education through its Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. The program provides a solid foundation in education theory and research methods, including coursework, research apprenticeships, and independent research. Upon graduation, students are well-prepared to pursue careers in academia, research, policy, and leadership in educational organizations. They are also equipped with the skills and knowledge to contribute to developing and implementing policies and practices in education.

• Location: New York, New York
• Focus of study : Learning sciences, educational policy, educational technology, and curriculum development. 
• What is included: Annual stipend, tuition coverage for required course work, and health insurance through the fifth year

Princeton University PhD in Mathematics

Princeton University offers a PhD program in mathematics that is designed to prepare students for careers in academia, industry, or government. The program aims to provide a rigorous and comprehensive mathematics education, emphasizing both the theoretical foundations and applications of the discipline. Students take advanced courses in various mathematical fields, such as algebra, geometry, analysis, topology, and applied mathematics. Princeton’s program in mathematics is widely regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious and rigorous programs.

• Location: Princeton, New Jersey 
• Focus of study : Algebraic geometry, mathematical physics, number theory, and topology
• What is included: Full tuition and student health plan coverage

Rice University PhD in Business

Rice University offers a PhD in Business through its Jones Graduate School of Business, designed to prepare students for academic careers and research-oriented positions in industry and government. Students in the program take courses in microeconomics, econometrics, statistics, research methods, and business ethics. In addition to coursework and research, students in the program are encouraged to work as teaching or research assistants. Rice University’s PhD program provides students with a strong foundation in business theory and research methods, with opportunities to work with world-class faculty on cutting-edge research projects.

• Location: Houston, Texas
• Focus of study : Accounting, finance, management, marketing, and strategic management
• What is included : Waived tuition fees, a stipend to cover living expenses, health insurance, and may be eligible for research and travel funding to support their research projects

University of Chicago PhD in History  

The PhD program in History at the University of Chicago is a demanding but rewarding experience that prepares students for a career in academia as scholars or teaching in the field of history. The program focuses on developing students’ knowledge of cultural, intellectual, economic, political, and social history under the guidance of highly qualified faculty advisors. PhD students also have the opportunity to present their research at conferences and publish articles in academic journals.

• Location: Chicago, Illinois
• Focus of study : Ancient, contemporary, early modern, medieval, or modern history 
• What is included: Tuition, student health insurance, and a stipend for living expenses and research support

University of Michigan PhD in Engineering 

The PhD in Engineering at the University of Michigan is a top-rated program that prepares students for research and academic careers in various engineering disciplines, including biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, and many more. PhD students are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct independent research, develop new technologies, and advance the engineering field. The University of Michigan has a strong reputation for research and innovation, and the PhD program in Engineering provides students with ample opportunities to collaborate with faculty and industry partners.

• Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan 
• Focus of study : Materials science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science.
• What is included: Tuition waiver, monthly living stipend, and health insurance 

University of North Carolina PhD in Media and Communication  

The PhD program in Media and Communication at the University of North Carolina provides students with advanced knowledge and skills in media and communication theories, research methods, and critical analysis. Students can tailor their studies to their research interests by choosing from a variety of electives and seminars offered by the department. Graduates of the program have gone on to work in academia, media organizations, research institutions, and other industries where communication skills and media literacy are highly valued.

• Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina 
• Focus of study : Media and politics, journalism studies, digital media, global media, media effects, and cultural studies
• What is included: Tuition and fees for three years, health insurance, a $20,000+ annual stipend, and support for research and travel

Frequently asked questions about fully funded PhDs

What does 'fully funded phd' mean, can international students apply for fully funded phds, how long does a fully funded phd program take, do i need to have a master's degree to apply for a phd, what is the difference between a phd and a professional doctorate.

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• 17 April 2024

Canadian science gets biggest boost to PhD and postdoc pay in 20 years

• Brian Owens

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Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau and finance minister Chrystia Freeland hold copies of the 2024 federal budget. Credit: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty

Researchers in Canada got most of what they were hoping for in the country’s 2024 federal budget, with a big boost in postgraduate pay and more funding for research and scientific infrastructure.

“We are investing over $5 billion in Canadian brainpower,” said finance minister Chrystia Freeland in her budget speech on 16 April. “More funding for research and scholarships will help Canada attract the next generation of game-changing thinkers.”

Canadian PhD students and postgrads plan mass walkout over low pay

Postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers have been advocating for higher pay for the past two years through a campaign called Support Our Science. They requested an increase in the value, and number, of federal government scholarships, and got more than they asked for. Stipends for master’s students will rise from Can$17,500 (US$12,700) to $27,000 per year, PhDs stipends that ranged from $20,000 to $35,000 will be set to a uniform annual $40,000 and most postdoctoral-fellowship salaries will increase from $45,000 to $70,000 per annum. The number of scholarships and fellowships provided will also rise over time, building to around 1,720 more per year after five years.

“We’re very thrilled with this significant new investment, the largest investment in graduate students and postdocs in over 21 years,” says Kaitlin Kharas, a PhD student at the University of Toronto, Canada, and executive director of Support Our Science . “It will directly support the next generation of researchers.”

Although only a small proportion of students and postdoctoral fellows receive these federal scholarships, other funders tend to use them as a guide for their own stipends.

Many postgraduates said that low pay was forcing them to consider leaving Canada to pursue their scientific career, says Kharas, so this funding should help to retain talent in the country.

“This is going to move us from a searing brain drain to a brain gain, and position us to compete on the world stage,” says Chad Gaffield, chief executive of the U15 Group of Canadian Research Universities, based in Ontario, which supported the campaign.

‘Determined to thrive’

The budget also includes marked boosts for basic research. There is an extra $1.8 billion over five years in core funding for the three federal grant-awarding research councils, as well as $400 million for upgrades to the TRIUMF particle accelerator in Vancouver, and more cash for several other large facilities and institutes across the country. There will also be more than $2 billion for the artificial-intelligence sector in Canada.

“[This budget] really emphasizes that Canada is determined to thrive in the twenty-first century based on science and research,” says Gaffield.

Canada announces new innovation agency — and it’s not modelled on DARPA

Others have pointed out that the vast majority of the money in the budget for the research councils is backloaded, with just $228 million coming in the next two years. This means that the gains will be slow, and could be vulnerable to changes in the political climate, says Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a consultancy in Toronto. “Do not count on this money being there after an election,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter). Canada’s next federal election is due in October 2025, and the opposition Conservative Party is campaigning on reigning in spending.

The budget also makes some changes to how science funding is organized. Instead of ten different programmes for scholarships and fellowships, with differing levels of support, there will now be a single programme with just three levels — master’s degrees, PhDs and postdoctoral fellowships. Kharas says that this should simplify the system.

The government will also create a new “capstone” research-funding organization to better coordinate the work of the three granting councils and “help to advance internationally collaborative, multi-disciplinary and mission-driven research”, the budget says. It will also create an advisory Council on Science and Innovation, comprised of leaders from academia, industry and the non-profit sector, which will develop a national science-and-innovation strategy to guide priority setting and increase the impact of federal investments. “This should help move us towards a more efficient, well-coordinated and nimble way of supporting research in Canada,” says Gaffield. “I look forward to working with the government to optimize it.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01124-2

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Financing Your Education - Doctoral Programs

A doctoral degree is a significant investment in your future, and financing your education is a critical factor to consider. While the funding we provide covers the basic standard cost of attendance determined by Stanford University for a modest life as a graduate student, accepting an offer from a doctoral program has significant personal, professional, and financial implications. Below you’ll find information on GSE and Stanford financial support for doctoral students, as well as other important considerations when it comes to financing your PhD.

Funding guarantee

Stanford GSE offers all admitted PhD students a five-year funding package that provides tuition aid, fellowship stipend, and assistantship salary which covers the standard cost of attendance. The funding is based on meeting the basic financial need of the student alone for the first five academic years of the doctoral program and entails assistantship work. The cornerstone of the GSE doctoral experience is the apprenticeship that all students undertake, typically under the guidance of their academic advisor, but often with other Stanford faculty as well. In this apprenticeship model, doctoral students are provided with a funding package that consists of opportunities to serve as teaching and research assistants for faculty members' courses and research projects. By this means, and in combination with the coursework, students are prepared to excel as university faculty, education researchers, and leaders in the field.

All funding is contingent upon satisfactory academic progress and performance on the research and teaching assistantships. There is no separate application for this funding.

Assistantships

As part of the academic and professional training and development, students undertake assistantships which provide both salary and tuition. Research assistantships are funded by faculty research grants, other faculty funds or as needed, by the GSE Dean’s Office, and can lead to joint publications with faculty or to dissertation topics. Students who have sufficient expertise and experience may also be selected as teaching assistants for courses at the GSE or other Stanford schools and departments. Assistantships are typically secured in consultation with faculty advisors. Students work 10 hours (25% assistantship) or 20 hours (50% assistantship) a week depending on their year in the program. 

• Research assistantship (RA): Various duties for research projects
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• Course Assistant (CA)—course preparation and grading
• Teaching Assistant (TA)—leads regularly-scheduled discussion sections
• Teaching Affiliate (TF)—full responsibility for course

Funding Details 2023-2024

Note: The above figures reflect 2023-2024 rates. Actual amounts will be adjusted to the rates for 2024-25 and future years.

Cost of attendance

Tuition depends on the units taken by the student. In addition to tuition expenses, the cost of attendance of a PhD program involves living expenses such as rent, food, and transportation. The sum of tuition and non-tuition expenses constitutes the standard cost of attendance. 

As you consider applying to graduate school, you can use the standard cost of attendance of your program —plus any additional expenses you might have—to create your financial plan, keeping in mind that tuition and non-tuition expenses of the standard cost of attendance are set by the university on an annual basis.

What you can do now to prepare financially if admitted

• Prepare for how your standard of living may change as a graduate student, especially if you are coming from a full-time job.
• Consider the length of your program, any dependents, existing debt, and additional financial commitments you may have. Students with children may review Stanford support programs for families.
• If you have personal or special circumstances that require additional expenses above and beyond the standard cost of attendance, plan accordingly.
• Start saving as much as you are able to cover any unexpected expenses you may incur while in graduate school.
• Familiarize yourself with federal as well as private student loans, their interest rates, fees, repayment options, deferment policies, and eligibility requirements, so that you are informed if you need to borrow.
• Be ready to cover all initial expenses, since fellowships and stipends will not be disbursed until a few weeks into your first quarter. Onboarding into a PhD program often requires up front out of pocket expenses for relocation.

Additional GSE resources

Once PhD students matriculate, the GSE has a variety of resources available to support academic work and unanticipated needs.

Students are eligible for up to three travel fellowships during their time at GSE if they are attending a conference or other professional development opportunity.

GSE Student Emergency Fund assists graduate students who experience a financial emergency or unanticipated expenses causing financial hardship. This fund is meant to support those who cannot reasonably resolve their financial difficulty through fellowships, loans, or personal resources. 

GSE Dissertation Support Grants help advanced PhD students who require additional financial support for dissertation research activities. These grants, available at up to $6,500 total per student, are available to students who do not have access to other funds to cover their dissertation costs.

Stanford University resources

Knight-Hennessy Scholars (KHS) program aims to prepare the next generation of global leaders to address the increasingly complex challenges facing the world. The program selects up to 100 students each year and provides three years of financial support that is integrated into the GSE’s funding package for PhD students.

Vice Provost for Graduate Education awards various fellowships for doctoral students and maintains a list of other Stanford fellowships that students may consider.

Cardinal Care subsidy is an automatic university-wide subsidy program for graduate students. Vaden Health Center manages the university’s Cardinal Care student health insurance.

Stanford Financial Aid Office oversees a number of financial support programs specifically for graduate students with challenging financial situations. 

Additional hourly work is available to students who wish to work for pay as "casual labor" at Stanford up to eight hours a week, provided work does not adversely affect the academic program. Requires approval from the student’s advisor and the Academic Services team.

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External fellowships are integrated into the GSE’s funding package. There are many funding opportunities offered outside of Stanford. The GSE admissions team has compiled an external fellowships and grants document for you to explore, though you should plan to do your own research as well. International students can find additional sources of funding on the Institute of International Education’s (IIE) Funding for U.S. Study website and this publication .

Stanford is committed to providing benefits through the Yellow Ribbon Program of the Post-9/11 GI Bill® to students in degree-seeking programs. GSE students who qualify for Chapter 33 benefits at the 100% level may be eligible for additional funding through the Yellow Ribbon Program. Please note that for GSE students receiving tuition fellowship funding, the Yellow Ribbon match may reduce and in some cases replace institutional grants and scholarships. For instructions, visit the page, Activate VA Education Benefits at Stanford .

International students are guaranteed the same funding package as domestic students. However, there may be restrictions regarding the number of hours and opportunities to work during the summer months. To learn more, please contact the Bechtel International Center .

To meet immigration regulations, international students must show proof of adequate financial support to cover the length of time of their graduate program. While international students are not eligible for U.S. federal loan programs, they may qualify for private/alternative loans. Many lenders, however, require that a U.S. citizen or permanent resident co-sign the loan. You can find information and tools to help you choose private loan programs most frequently used by Stanford students here. A comprehensive list of private loan programs is available at FinAid.org .

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2 DAAD PhD Scholarships in Sustainable Metallurgy for Students from Developing Countries

The International Max Planck Research School for Sustainable Metallurgy (SusMet) offers two DAAD PhD scholarships for students from developing countries in full time for four years for the following projects:

• “High-Throughput Atomistic Simulations of Microstructure-Induced Failure” , Max Planck Institute for Sustainable Materials, Düsseldorf
• “Multimodal multiscale correlative microscopy of reduction processes” , Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Our structured, three-year doctoral program, conducted entirely in English, takes an intensive interdisciplinary approach and brings together scientists from across the globe in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of Germany.

Metallurgy has provided humankind since more than five millennia with materials, tools and the associated progress. It is not only a huge engineering success story, but has also become the biggest single industrial environmental burden of our generation. Disruptive innovations are required for alternative reduction processes that convert mineral ores into metals without today’s carbon based methods that release huge amounts of CO 2 . SusMet focuses on the exploration of carbon-free sustainable metallurgy, employing hydrogen as reducing agent, direct electroreduction (electrolysis) and plasma synthesis. Correlating experimental, ab initio and multi-scale simulation as well as machine learning techniques is central to our mission:

• Development and application of advanced simulation techniques to explore and identify the fundamental structures and mechanisms occurring in these materials and their synthesis over all relevant length scales (e.g. cutting-edge ab initio methods, atomistic simulation methods, multi-scale modelling, machine learning)
• High resolution analysis, monitoring of chemistry, structure and transformations at the atomic scale of buried interfaces and defects by correlated experimental techniques in both space and time (e.g., correlated APT, TEM, FIM, EBIC, EBSD, XPS Kelvin probe microscopy, machine learning augmented analysis techniques)
• Experimental and computational analysis of transport and the reaction of surfaces and particles with reducing and oxidizing gas-phase species (e.g. laser-based imaging diagnostics, setup of model reactors, modeling of underlying reactions, multiscale simulation of reactive fluids, computational fluid dynamics)

What we offer

• Cutting-edge research in a dynamic work environment
• Well-structured curriculum and close supervision of the PhD projects including regular status meetings
• An international and open-minded community with outstanding opportunities for collaboration

Your profile

• Excellent master’s degree in materials science, physics, engineering or chemistry
• Very good English skills
• Not have been resident in Germany for the past 15 months
• Not have graduated longer than six years ago
• Not have completed a PhD

Required Documents

• Motivation letter
• Bachelor and Master degree certificates and transcript of records
• Certificate of very good English knowledge (IELTS, TOEFL, or similar)
• A recommendation letter from one of your university professors using the DAAD form To be sent by the professor to [email protected]

Scholarships are provided in the framework of the Graduate School Scholarship Programme (GSSP) of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). After nomination by IMPRS SusMet the successful candidates therefore have to formally apply to DAAD.

Application deadline: 20.05.2024 Starting date: 01.08.2024 or individually later

We are committed to employing more handicapped individuals and especially encourages them to apply. The Max Planck Society strives for gender and diversity equality. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.

IMPRS SusMet Elke Lorenz [email protected] www.mpie.de/2747306/doctoral-program

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This program-level funding policy has been developed to accompany GGR 1.17 . 

Effective Date : September 1, 2024 Approved by : Archaeology Graduate Program Committee on January 25, 2024 Approved by : Graduate Studies on January 29, 2024

The primary goal in the development of a minimum funding guarantee is equity. The Department of Archaeology equity practice will comply with the equity policy being developed by the  Faculty of Environment.

Minimum funding in the PhD program has been established to support students who are not engaged in professional work. Students who are working professionals might not receive a minimum funding guarantee. For the purposes of this policy, a working professional is defined as an individual who has completed formal, specialized education or training in a particular area and/or has recognized competence in that area and is employed in a job where their specialized knowledge is required. This includes, but is not limited to, professions such as consulting archaeologist, lab manager or lab technician, specialized analyst, teacher, counselor, consultant, accountant, management consultant, electrician, analyst, plumber, engineer, or physician. 

• Students enrolled in the PhD program in Archaeology are expected to complete the program in 5 years (15 terms). Students in the program will be funded for a minimum of 4 years (12 terms) terms. We cannot guarantee funding beyond 12 terms, but we will work with the student and their supervisor to secure some level of funding until completion.
• In the case that there is a conflict between this policy and GGR 1.17 , GGR 1.17 will prevail.
• Students will receive guaranteed minimum funding of the minimum amount stipulated in GGR 1.17.2 (i.e., $28,000) for the term of the funding guarantee provided in 1.
• Continued funding is contingent on maintaining a CGPA of 3.5 or higher, satisfactory progress in the program, applying for major internal and external awards for which they are eligible (i.e., Vanier CGS, CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC CGSD, Trudeau Foundation, CSC, and other major awards), and meeting the supervisor’s reasonable expectations as detailed in the annual progress review (often completed via the Graduate Progress Report) and as outlined in the Prospectus and Colloquium and Comprehensive Examination sections of the Archaeology Graduate Student Handbook.
• Scholarship payment from supervisor’s research grant 
• up to 8.34 base units of Teaching Assistant or sessional teaching assignments
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• Brian Williamson Graduate Travel Award in Archaeology
• Dr. J.V. Christensen Graduate Scholarship in Archaeology
• Roy L. Carlson Graduate Scholarship
• Additional one- to three-term (up to one year) awards, regardless of the amount, will be fully awarded to the student above the funding minimum. This includes many donor awards.
• Student funding will not be provided in equal increments over the course of the academic year. Students are advised to budget accordingly.
• The funding year begins in Fall and ends in Summer for all students enrolled in the program. Students who begin the program in a semester other than the semester in which the funding year begins will have their funding accordingly pro-rated for the remaining portion of the academic year.
• The time spent in non-required Co-operative Education or Internship programs will count against the total terms of guaranteed funding.
• As per 6 above, if students receive additional awards up to and including 1 (one) year in duration, they will receive the full award amount above their funding minimum. This includes many donor awards.
• Graduate Dean’s Entrance Scholarship (GDES) award holders will receive a minimum of $2,000 in addition to the minimum funding while they hold the GDES.
• PhD SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship award holders ($20,000 per year for up to 4 years) will receive a minimumf $2,000 in addition to the minimum funding while they hold the award.
• PhD PGSD (NSERC Doctoral Award) award holders ($21,000 per year for up to 3 years) will receive a minimum of $2,000 in addition to the minimum funding while they hold the award.
• PhD CGS-D award holders ($35,000 per year for up to 3 years) will receive a minimum of $5,400 in addition to the $35,000 while they hold the award.
• When a student does not hold a multi-year award, they will receive the minimum funding amount as stated in 3.
• If a student receives a multi-year award not listed here, the program shall provide them with additional funding in the spirit of the examples above.
• This policy will be reviewed and adjusted as required at least every three years. Policy revisions will apply to newly-admitted students.

* Students who receive a tuiton waiver will not be eligible for the PhD Research Scholarship and may have their total minimum funding amount reduced accordingly.

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U.S. News & World Report: Deese College No. 1 HBCU Graduate Business School

By Todd Simmons / 04/10/2024 College of Business and Economics , The Graduate College

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EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (April 10, 2024) – The Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is the No. 1 business school among America’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), according to U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Colleges” rankings, released Tuesday.

The Deese College has now appeared in the Top 100 for four consecutive years, coming in at a tie for No. 79 with the University of Detroit Mercy, a private, Roman Catholic campus. Clark Atlanta University (No. 93, tie) is the only other ranked HBCU. Howard, with which N.C. A&T was tied last year, is unranked this year.

Among North Carolina schools, A&T only trails Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. The college is named for A&T alumnus Willie A. Deese, who served prominently as president of global manufacturing for the pharmaceutical giant, Merck. Now retired, Deese continues to play a prominent role at his alma mater.

“We’re delighted that our Deese College continues to factor so prominently nationally among graduate business schools,” said Lisa Owens-Jackson, Ph.D., interim dean of the Deese College. “Our ranking this year is an honest reflection of the quality of our MBA programs, the excellence of our students and our graduates’ career placement success.”

A&T’s fast-growing master’s and doctoral programs in computer science moved into a tie for No. 163 nationally, up eight positions from last year. A&T ranks No. 7 nationally in graduation of African American master’s graduates in computer science and No. 1 among HBCUs.

Other nationally ranked A&T graduate programs remain in the same positions as last year, owing to multiple factors at U.S. News & World Report . The magazine encountered data issues with its Best Engineering Programs list and has postponed new rankings until that is resolved.

Ranked programs in rehabilitation counseling, biological sciences, earth sciences and mathematics maintained their 2023 positions, as U.S. News has not published new rankings data for those disciplines. Master’s and doctoral rehabilitation counseling programs in the College of Education continue to be A&T’s most highly ranked graduate programs, coming in at No. 46 (tie) nationally.

With nearly 1,700 master’s and doctoral students, A&T continues to grow at the graduate student level. As America’s most affordable doctoral research university, it offers outstanding academic quality at an exceptional price and strong connections to industry. According to U.S. News’ most recent salary rankings, graduates earn the second-highest starting salaries of any campus in the University of North Carolina System.

Media Contact Information: [email protected]

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