Graduate School Financial Aid
Types of Financial Support Explained
Fellowships are typically granted to individuals to cover their stipend and tuition while they conduct their graduate work. Awards may be single or multiple-year and may come from a university or outside organization. Awards are highly competitive and based on an individual’s merit as measured by grades, GRE scores, publications, and letters of recommendation. If you are a strong student, fellowships are an excellent way to get you in virtually any lab of your choice.
Borel Global Fellows Program
This program provides support for one to two African students per year to complete an M.S. degree at the University of Delaware. For details, please visit the program website.
Delaware River Fellows Program
The program aims to increase engagement and action toward protecting and restoring the Delaware River Watershed. Fellowship activities vary, but some involve leading guided trail hikes, working on a riverfront dock, and biking with a “Mobile Nature Center” to engage with visitors to environmental centers. Fellowships culminate in a Capstone Summit where each Fellow presents his or her research, findings, and experiences.
DENIN Environmental Fellows Program
The DENIN Environmental Fellows Program supports doctoral students carrying out environmentally relevant research at the University of Delaware. The goal of the program is to help prepare students whose scientific research and interests demonstrate a clear link to societal needs and benefits.
Federal STEM Grad Student Opportunities
List of links to about 50 federally funded opportunities in a variety of agencies for grad students in STEM fields. Agencies include the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Defense (DOD), and many more.
The Delaware Nature Society offers graduate student internships. Training is offered in leadership, teaching, program design and coordination, and administration. With the approval of the major department, academic credits may be earned. The internship may also be continued for up to one year. To apply, a resume and college transcript should be sent to the Assistant Director for Education, Delaware Nature Society, P.O. Box 700, Hockessin, Delaware 19707.
Conservation Internships & Fellowships
The Winterthur Conservation Department welcomes students as interns training to become conservators and as fellows pursuing post graduate experience and research. Winterthur provides a rich learning environment with access to conservation and analytical labs, a research library and an extensive collection of American art and decorative arts.
Winterthur offers unparalleled access to a wealth of museum, garden, and library collections supporting material culture research. As an interdisciplinary center for collections-based scholarship and conservation, Winterthur encourages researchers to explore and immerse themselves in holistic and intimate inquiry from a wide range of disciplines.
Grants are most often awarded to cover expenses associated with carrying out research or other specific projects, such as travel, materials, or computers.
Graduate College Innovation Grants
The inaugural Graduate College Innovation Grant program seeks to create new opportunities in graduate education, and enhance the graduate student experience at UD. By encouraging development of new academic and co-curricular programs, as well as stronger support for students and their mentors, the Graduate College aims to increase the value we provide to graduate, professional, and post-doctoral trainees, and attract new students to our programs.
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Grant
This grant program is for graduate students who are researching topics in sustainable agriculture that will serve the interests of farmers and the greater agricultural community.
Assistantships are usually campus-affiliated work assignments (e.g. graduate teaching instructor, research associate) that provide an individual a stipend (salary) and often waive tuition. There are three categories of assistantships: teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and graduate assistantships. The definition of these categories is provided below. In cases where a student’s time and funding are divided between or among these categories, the student’s classification will be determined on the basis of how the student is spending the preponderance of his or her time.
Teaching Assistantships
Teaching assistantships are awarded through the individual departments. Teaching assistants are required to perform teaching and other instructional activities for twenty hours each week during the academic year.
Research Assistantships
Research assistantships are generally funded by research grants and contracts provided by external funding agencies. Research assistantships require twenty hours of service or research a week. Research assistants are expected to work on their assigned research projects during winter session and may be required to conduct research during summer as well. The amount of each student’s stipend will be calculated in accordance with the number of months that the student is appointed as a research assistant.
Graduate Assistantships
Graduate assistantships are awarded by academic departments and other University offices to students in exchange for specialized tasks. Graduate assistants may be appointed for twenty hours each week during the academic year including winter session in a variety of capacities as administrative assistants to University faculty and administrators.
- Assistantships are often associated with a specific professor – that’s why it is important to identify potential research mentors before sending an application to the graduate program. Even if you meet admission requirements, admission will only be granted if a research mentor agrees to accept you into their lab and fund your assistantship.
- The graduate school office will send all the applications for a department to the faculty in the department.
- If you’ve already been corresponding with someone, they’ll see your application and say –“Oh – I know them and we’ve been chatting over email. I want him/her in my lab!”