Fellowships, Scholarships, and Prizes
A variety of fellowship opportunities are available with support ranging from tuition scholarships only to tuition scholarship plus stipend. Financial aid is not necessarily tied to teaching or research assistantships.
Explore the following items for more information:
- Departmental financial aid
- Dissertation year fellowships
- Tuition scholarships
- Reviews of student performance
- Prizes
- Outside support
- Employment policy
Departmental Financial Aid
Fellowships and tuition scholarships are available for PhD work in economics. Fellowships pay a cash stipend for the academic year, and include a full tuition waiver. Tuition scholarships pay no cash stipend, but offset the tuition costs of study.
Financial aid in the form of research assistantships or teaching assistantships is generally not available to first-year students as the course load is demanding. To apply for financial aid as an entering student, you need only complete the designated section of the application.
Fellowships are typically renewed every year, for four years, so long as the student is in good standing in the program. Currently there’s no financial aid for the sixth year.
Full tuition scholarships are also generally renewed for four years for students in good standing in the program.
Entering students should not expect their tuition scholarships to be upgraded routinely. Department financial constraints make this an unpredictable event.
Dissertation Year Fellowships
We typically nominate up to three students to dissertation-year fellowships and one student is nominated for the University’s Ball Fellowship.
These fellowships last for one year, and are intended to allow outstanding students to devote their full attention to the dissertation during their last year of study.
Tuition Scholarships
A full tuition scholarship means that the College Graduate Studies Office will pay up to 90 credits of coursework. A standard program might look something like this:
First year 32 credit hours - in course work
Second year 24 credit hours - in course work
Third year 4 credit hours - workshops, master essay, PhD research
Fourth year 0 credit hours - doctoral dissertation, 999 or 997 registration category
If you are in doubt about whether your program of study meets the conditions for a tuition scholarship then please contact the graduate secretary, or refer to the Graduate Program Handbook.
Reviews of Student Performance
The faculty reviews graduate student performance following each semester. Key elements in this review are:
- Course grades
- Qualifying examination results
- Status of third-year paper and thesis research
- Teaching assistance performance
- Any other information the faculty may have concerning student progress
These reviews are important for determining awards and prizes.
Prizes
The department recognizes superior performance through a variety of prizes. These include the:
- Kaplan Prize—awarded to the second-year student with the best overall course record
- Conibear Prize—awarded for the best third-year paper
- Tapan Mitra Prizes—awarded for the best fifth-year empirical paper and the best fifth-year theoretical paper
In addition to the recognition, all three prizes currently include a cash award.
Outside Support
A variety of external funding sources are available. These include fellowship and research programs offered by the US and foreign governments, financial institutions, and philanthropic or research organizations.
The department strongly encourages students to apply for outside funding. A partial listing of funding sources is available in the department office. Many of these programs require submission of a research proposal, a task which is greatly facilitated by having a finished and polished dissertation prospectus.
Employment Policy
The department regards its awards as providing graduate students with the opportunity to undertake full-time graduate study and research without bearing the full cost of this activity. In keeping with this view, we desire that graduate students receiving fellowships not undertake other employment commitments during the academic year.
However, we do recognize that financial constraints may necessitate part-time employment. A guideline for the maximum amount of such outside employment compatible with maintaining a fellowship is one day per week, or, in teaching units, one course per term.
We also remind you of the permanent income hypothesis, and the fact that finishing a year earlier, or with a higher quality dissertation, can have significant future rewards.