Financing Your Degree - Doctoral Programs

Our Commitment

Doctoral students at SUSE receive a four-year funding guarantee which provides tuition and a fellowship stipend/assistantship salary. This funding applies to the first four years of the doctoral program and generally entails 20 hours per week of assistantship work (research and/or teaching) on a research project or course with a faculty member at SUSE. Most students continue on research and teaching assistantships through the fifth year of their program. The average time-to-degree completion for SUSE students has been five years.

In addition, many university-wide fellowships are awarded to doctoral students starting with their second year at Stanford, and through their dissertation-writing stage.

Research and Teaching Assistantships

Research assistants (RAs) are needed on a variety of projects within SUSE. RAs are typically funded by grants received by the professor. Some assistantships may lead to joint publications with faculty or to dissertation topics. Students who have sufficient expertise and experience may also be selected as course or teaching assistants (CAs/TAs) to assist them with their courses.

RA and TA appointments are made on a quarter-time (10 hours per week) or half-time (20 hours per week) basis. Quarter-time appointments pay for five units of tuition per quarter plus a living assistantship salary (approximately $4,000 per academic quarter), while half-time appointments pay for 8-10 units of tuition per quarter plus a living assistantship salary (approximately $8,000 per academic quarter). The salary portion is taxable.

In their first year, doctoral students work quarter-time on an RA or TAship while taking classes; in years 2-4 they hold a half-time assistantship (usually two quarter-time positions) while taking classes. In subsequent years, they may continue to work as an RA or TA, but priority is given to funding students in their first four years of study.

Fellowships

About 20% of our doctoral students are awarded the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in their first year, which is designed to reduce its dependence on federal funding for Ph.D. training. SGF nominations are made by SUSE to the university's SGF committee. The fellowship provides 11 academic quarters of funding. Student on SGF are involved in faculty research and in assisting with courses through their apprenticeship requirement at SUSE.

Additional fellowships that are available to SUSE students are:

• Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowships
• CONACYT-Stanford Fellowships, for Mexican Nationals
• Center for Comparative Study in Race and Ethnicity Graduate Fellowships
• DARE (Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence) Fellowship Program
• Lieberman Dissertation Fellowships

Fellowship opportunities for which students can apply are announced by Academic Services staff regularly throughout the year.

Travel Fellowships

SUSE provides travel fellowships to doctoral students who are presenting a paper at a conference. Students may receive up to 2 fellowships during their time at SUSE-- one pre-candidacy and one post-candidacy. Students must provide proof of their presenting a paper at a conference, and must be registered in the quarter in which funds are awarded.

Dissertation Support Grants at SUSE

SUSE makes available grants of up to a total of $6500 per student for advanced doctoral students at SUSE who need support for dissertation research activities. These grants are available to students who do not have access to other funds to cover their dissertation costs.

Hourly Work

Doctoral students may work as "casual labor" at Stanford for up to eight hours per week, provided it does not adversely impact their academic program and is not in positions that would be normally paid through an assistantship. For more details, please refer to the Doctoral Degree Policies and Guidelines.

Loan Programs

A variety of loans are available to students seeking advanced degrees at Stanford who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Visit the University Financial Aid Office website and click on "Graduate Students" for information and application forms.

International students may apply for private loans from local banks, including the Stanford Federal Credit Union. Many lenders, however, typically require that a US citizen or Permanent Resident be a co-signer on the loan. There is a list of private loan lenders available on the Financial Aid Office website.

Non-Stanford Fellowships and Grants

SUSE students have a successful track record of receiving nationally-competitive fellowships and grants, such as from the National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, AERA and ASHE. The information on Fellowships and Grants offers an array of internal and external funding opportunities designed for a wide range of interests.

Special Note to International Students

In order to meet immigration regulations, international students must show proof of adequate support for the length of time of their graduate program. Students from foreign countries compete equally with U.S. citizens for assistantship and fellowship support from SUSE. However, international students are not eligible to receive loans through the Stanford Financial Aid Office. Several international students at SUSE successfully seek sources of funding from their countries of origin (from corporations, universities, or governments).