Financial Support

Most students in the Program receive financial assistance in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships and/or research assistantships. In order to receive financial aid, it is necessary to be considered a full-time graduate student, which means you must register for a minimum of 6 units each semester.

Research assistantships can come from grants and contracts to faculty members and generally require the recipients to perform research related to the grant or contract. Fellowships come from training grants, the Program, or other sources, and carry requirements depending on the source of funding. Teaching Assistantships are supported through the Department of Mathematics and carry specific teaching and professional responsibilities. All financial support is contingent upon meeting Graduate College requirements, which include at least a 3.0 grade point average, and maintaining high standards of professional conduct and academic performance.

Most students entering the PhD program with financial support receive a commitment of support for up to five years subject to satisfactory progress. The nature of the support may vary from year to year. If additional time is required to complete the PhD, support may be available but cannot be guaranteed. This policy applies to all sources of support controlled by the Program in Applied Mathematics including teaching assistantships, fellowships and research assistantships funded by grants administered by Applied Mathematics. Continuation of research assistantships from other sources is always at the discretion of the Principal Investigator of the grant, regardless of the number of years of prior funding.

Students should recognize that financial support from the Program is a privilege and not a right. Students are strongly encouraged to apply for Research Assistantship support through faculty and fellowship awards from local and national agencies.

There are opportunities for students to obtain external fellowships of various kinds from funding agencies such as the NSF, NIH, DOE, and private foundations. These fellowships are prestigious, financially advantageous, and, by relieving a student of the need to teach for support, can speed up their time to graduation. Students are strongly encouraged to apply for these awards. The Office of Fellowship and Community Engagement assists graduate students in searching and applying for funding outside of the UA.