Personal Finance for PhDs

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Fellowships

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Frequently, PhD students will be supported for one or more years of grad school by training grants or fellowships. Training grants are given to departments to support incoming students while they are engaged with taking classes and doing rotations before committing to an advisor. Fellowships may be given by the university or an outside funding source and typically carry some prestige as well as possibly a higher pay rate. Both fellowships and training grants are typically considered non-compensatory pay because there is “no work requirement.”

Further reading: Stop Making Excuses and Start Applying for Graduate Grants, Scholarships, and Fellowships

Finding Fellowships

Before you enter your program, you should talk with faculty members, administrators, and older students to learn what type of funding you have been offered for the first and subsequent years and what additional funding you might apply for. Fellowship applications are often due in the fall for funding beginning in the next school year, so you may need to start your applications soon after arriving on campus.

In addition to university-based fellowship opportunities, there are many national-level field-specific fellowships available to students at different stages of their degrees that are catalogued in fellowship databases.

What if I have more than one fellowship?

It is not uncommon for students to receive more than one fellowship that provide stipends. In those cases, the funding agencies typically coordinate a schedule that will allow the student to use only one fellowship at a time and spread the funding out over more of the student’s tenure in grad school. These qualified students may have fellowship funding from the start of grad school to the end.

If I win a fellowship, what does my department give me?

If you receive a fellowship that alleviates your university of providing your stipend, particularly if it is prestigious and for multiple years, ask your department if they provide a bonus or supplemental pay to students who win that fellowship. If you are receive the fellowship during your application process, find out which schools would offer a bonus or supplemental pay and consider letting your top choice know what your other offers are. This is possibly the only opportunity a grad student has to negotiate compensation.

What happens when my fellowship ends?

If you receive a fellowship that provides a stipend that is higher than the base stipend of your department, be cognizant that your stipend may decrease significantly when your fellowship ends. Be proactive in using your excess income for those years to beef up savings or pay down debt instead of inflating your lifestyle.

Finding Fellowships

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There are many opportunities for graduate students to win fellowship funding for their own stipends, tuition, and/or research expenses. The fellowships often provide a stipend that is higher than what the graduate programs normally pay, confer a degree of independence to the recipient, and boost the recipient’s CV with their prestige.

Fellowships Databases

ProFellow is a large, comprehensive, user-friendly database of fellowships that individuals can apply for that provide funding both for graduate student and for work opportunities. You can find fellowships to fund your graduate work by choosing either ‘Graduate study’ or ‘Doctoral study’ under the ‘Fellowship Type’ search field. After you create an account, you can keep track of fellowships of interest to you by bookmarking them.

These comprehensive databases of funding opportunities will also help you find fellowships and grants that you are eligible for:

Broad National Fellowships

The fellowships included below are popular among early-stage graduate students because they provide a large number of fellowships each year to students in a range of disciplines.

National Science Foundation

Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Award: $12,000 toward tuition and fees and a $32,000 stipend for three years

Fields: a variety of fields within chemistry, computer and information science and engineering, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, materials research, mathematical sciences, physics and astronomy, psychology, social sciences, STEM education and learning research

Eligible years: college seniors and first and second year graduate students

Deadline: October to November 2015 (field-dependent)

Further Reading: Preparing an Award-Winning NSF GRFP Application

Department of Defense

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship

Award: tuition, fees, and 12-month stipend of $30,500 in the first year, $31,000 in the second year, and $31,500 in the third year

Fields: Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering; Biosciences; Chemical Engineering; Chemistry; Civil Engineering; Cognitive, Neural, and Behavioral Sciences; Computer and Computational Sciences; Electrical Engineering; Geosciences; Materials Science and Engineering; Mathematics; Mechanical Engineering; Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering; Oceanography; Physics

Eligible years: college seniors and first and second year graduate students

Deadline: December 11, 2015

Fannie & John Hertz Foundation

Hertz Fellowship

Award: tuition and $32,000/year for five years

Fields: applied physical, biological and engineering sciences

Eligible years: college seniors and grad students

Deadline: October 31, 2015

Notes: Must agree to a moral commitment.

 

Do you know of another national fellowship for a variety of disciplines or a great funding database? Leave the name in the comments and we will add it to the list.

Work

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It is very common for graduate students to work to generate income for their living expenses. The students may work for their universities as research assistants, teaching assistants, or in some other role to receive compensatory pay. Students may have an outside part-time or full-time job or “side hustle,” if permitted by their programs. Before you begin your program, you should find out if it is typical for students to work as research assistants or teaching assistants and how proactive you have to be about finding assignments.

Assistantships

Students will often work directly for the university as a research assistant (RA) or teaching assistant (TA) in exchange for a stipend and scholarships that go toward paying tuition and fees. RA and TA positions typically have a maximum time commitment of 20 hours per week to allow for dissertation progress in the remaining time. An RA will work directly for a faculty member doing research, which could be identical to her dissertation research or on an unrelated project. A TA will assist a faculty member in teaching a course by lecturing, grading, running a lab, holding office hours, etc. There may be other types of graduate assistantships (GAs) available at some universities, in which a grad student will perform duties that are not research or teaching. In some programs, grad students will automatically be assigned an RA or TA position, but in other programs the he will need to find and apply for positions independently. Since these expectations are field- and university-specific, you should find out what is common for your programs during the application process. (RAs and TAs receive compensatory pay.)

Further reading: Graduate Assistantship Positions: Trading Time for Money, Make Money in Graduate School: Working as a Research or Teaching Assistant

Outside Jobs

Programs that provide full financial support will often disallow or frown upon students from having outside jobs because the student’s full attention should be on her classes and research progress. However, in programs that do not provide full financial support, it may be typical to work an outside job or take out loans or both. If you do take on outside work, you should try to find a job that still allows you sufficient time to work toward your degree, either because it will allow you to work simultaneously or because it has a high pay rate so you can limit your hours.

Jobs with Tuition Benefits

Some employers will offer to pay part or all of their employee’s tuition while they pursue a degree, usually on a part-time basis. Many universities offer this benefit to their staff and staff’s families, so you could strategically choose to work for a university so that you can attend for free or reduced cost. There is often a waiting period before this benefit kicks in, so if you are choosing a job expecting this benefit, be sure to read the fine print of your contract.

Further reading: That Time I Went to Grad School for Free*; Free Ivy League Degree; Employer Tuition Reimbursement: Ask Your Company to Pay

Side Hustles and Complementary Work

Programs often turn a blind eye to a side income if it doesn’t interfere with dissertation progress or even encourage work that complements the student’s research such as starting a company, consulting in the field, or doing an internship.

Check out our seven-part series on side incomes!