Funding Opportunities for Graduate School

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Financing graduate study in economics is often done in conjunction with the student's PhD program. Most graduate school funding is not need-dependent, but instead tends to be merit-dependent.

Funding is generally awarded in the form of fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships. Different programs award funding for different durations. According to the study, "Attrition in Economics Ph.D. Programs," (Stock, Finegan, and Siegfried, 2006), about 80 percent of the incoming class of economics PhD students at a representative sample of PhD programs were awarded financial aid during their first year of graduate study. The largest proportion of these was in the form of fellowships (which generally have no work requirement). The second most common financial aid was in the form of teaching and/or research assistantships (which generally include a work requirement).

Securing some form of aid and receiving a fellowship are more common among students enrolled at top-tier programs.

Links to Funding Resources