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Your Path to Success in Graduate Education!
GradPortal Home → Funding Information → Funding Options
Funding Options
GradPortal is designed to help students applying for graduate school (or faculty helping students apply) by pointing students in the best direction for finding monetary support. After you have read the advice for each step of the application process, you may choose to proceed in one of two ways:
If you understand the benefit of pursuing graduate study with a faculty member who has monetary support for graduate student assistantships, then go to the Tutorial page, where you will learn how to search funding agencies for information on recent grant awards to university faculty.
If you want to learn more about competitive fellowships that provide "portable" funds (awards that you can take with you to any qualifying graduate program), then go to the Fellowships page, where you will find a list of links to help you identify fellowship opportunities.
The table below provides a detailed side-by-side comparison of RAs, TAs, and fellowships as methods of covering the cost of graduate study. Also, as you explore this site, you may find the following list to be useful: federal sources for research funding.
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Research Assistantships (RAs) |
Teaching Assistantships (TAs) |
Fellowships |
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| University(Internal) | Funding Agencies(External) |
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| Work/Service Requirements |
Yes |
Yes |
No | No |
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| Payback | No | No | No | Some |
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| Renewable | Yes,depending on performance | Yes, depending on performance | Some, depending on performance | No |
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| Source | Academic Institution | Academic Institution | Academic Institution | Federal or private funding agency |
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Contact Point
(in order of importance) | Faculty with similar research interests
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Department Chair/Graduate Advisor | University Financial Aid Office | Funding Agency |
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| Registration Requirements | Require enrollment in a degree program and registration as a regularly admitted, full-time student. | Require enrollment in a degree program and registration as a regularly admitted, full-time student. | Most require admission to a graduate program in a specific field. | Most require admission to a graduate program in a specific field. |
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| Financial Coverage | Part of/All tuition and living costs. Entitle reduced academic tuition | Part of tuition and living costs. Entitles reduced academic tuition. | Very little/part of tuition and additional cash | Part of/ all tuition and fees together with a generous stipend |
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| Supplementary funding sources | Can be supplemented with TAs | Can be supplemented with RAs & fellowships | Some can be supplemented with TAs | Some can be supplemented with TAs |
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| Additional requirements | - | Proof of at least 1 credit hour of teaching methods or teaching orientation class | Depends on agency and field of research | Depends on agency and field of research |
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| Level of competitiveness | Moderately competitive | The least competitive | Highly competitive | Highly competitive |
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