Financial Assistance
Fellowships & Assistantships
The University offers five types of support to full-time graduate students: fellowships, teaching and research assistantships, tuition scholarships, training grant scholarships, and grants-in-aid. All assistantships and fellowships provide a full tuition scholarship. A 12-month stipend is $29,489. For information on the cost of living in this region of the USA, click here.
University Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis. Most graduate students are supported as teaching assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). A student supported by a teaching assistantship will perform duties involving classroom or laboratory teaching. A student supported by a research assistantship is supported by sponsored research grants or internal funds to the faculty advisor. All graduate students are expected to conduct research and complete coursework as required by the program, no matter the source of the support (fellowship, TA, or RA).
Professional Development Funds from the Graduate School
There are several sources of funding offered through the Graduate School Professional Development Office. As part of Professional Development, the Graduate School has dedicated the earnings from three endowments (Joseph F. Downes Memorial, Notebaert Professional Development and Zahm Research Travel) to help support the professional development of graduate students. These funds are designed to help students offset the costs associated with workshops or short courses, attendance at scientific conferences, travel related to research, and professional development more generally. Applications are administered through the Graduate School, but reviewed by the Department of Biological Sciences. View deadlines and requirements here. Awards covering 50% of the requested expenses up to maximum of $500 are granted to eligible students in the Biological Sciences graduate program. Students may draw on these funds once per calendar year.
Grants and Fellowships from the Graduate Student Union
The Graduate Student Union also provides resources for graduate students traveling to professional conferences, as well as funds for professional development and research. View information regarding their conference presentation grant here.
Department Matching Funds
Departmental matching funds to help students with their research are available on a competitive basis. These funds can be used for supplies, equipment, and necessary travel to meetings, other laboratories or field sites.
Matching funds are available up to a maximum of $500 for travel and $500 for research expenses, for a maximum of $1000 for a student's time in the department. Only students who obtain outside funding for research or travel are eligible. The fund will match the amount of outside funding, up to the maximums above. "Outside funds" must be from awards to individual students, and not faculty research grants, training grants, or internal funding sources (such as the GSU). Students must have completed at least one year and not be beyond six years in the program, be in residence at Notre Dame, and be in good academic standing.
These applications require the following materials, sent to the DGS: (1) letter of request with a general indication of the proposed use of the research funds and (2) a copy of the award letter from the outside funding agency.
Applications for travel matching funds will be considered before the travel, but funds cannot be disbursed until after the travel has occurred. At the latest, applications for travel matching funds must be made within 30 days after travel. For travel to conferences, students are required to deliver a poster or oral presentation as primary author.
Exceptions to these policies are considered for special circumstances (eg, coursework at another university). Please direct questions to the DGS.
Departmental Matching Funds for Graduate Student Travel Application
Fellowship and Research Funding
In addition to the funding sources listed above, graduate students can apply for funding from a number of other internal and external sources. Furthermore, several professional societies offer funding for travel and research. Listed below are links to some funding sources our current students have successfully tapped.
Internal Fellowships
- Eck Institute for Global Health GS fellowships
- Chemistry Biochemistry Biology Interface Program (CBBI) Fellowship
- UNDERC Research and Mentoring Fellowships
External Fellowships
- American Heart Association
- Environmental Protection Agency STAR
- Fulbright
- NASA
- National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellowships
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP)