Funding
Currently, offers come with a commitment of five years of funding, typically in the form of a teaching assistant (TA) position. We expect that the Ph.D. can be completed in 4-5 years.
Funding on a departmental TA line is in the form of a 10-month stipend for the school year, with tuition also covered (including summer tuition, if desired) and a health insurance package. The department does not cover summer support, but students have opportunities to earn additional money (e.g., via research or teaching positions). Importantly, although all students are offered TA positions, many are provided research assistantships via external research grants that their faculty mentor may hold, or via fellowships (both internal to Penn State and external, e.g., NIH or NSF).
Teaching Assistantships
Unless other funding is available and arranged, graduate students in BBH are offered admission as a teaching assistant (TA) for fall and spring semesters (meaning, working as a TA for 20 hours per week, per semester). As long as the student remains in good academic standing, the department guarantees this level of support for five years (fall and spring semesters).
Research Assistantships
If the immediate adviser has research funds available for graduate students, students may be offered admission as a research assistant (meaning, working as an RA for 20 hours per week, per semester). Funding as a research assistant is only guaranteed for the number of years allotted within the research grant. If the research grant funding opportunity ends, the student will be appointed on departmental funds as a teaching assistant (for 20 hours per week, per semester) for fall and spring semesters (contingent upon the student being in good standing in the department). Faculty may also fund students via RAships during the summer.
Fellowships
Fellowships are highly prestigious financial support packages that typically include a stipend, tuition remission, and a subsidy for medical insurance. They derive from University or outside awards. Unlike assistantships, fellowships are not linked with a specific work commitment. Recipients must be enrolled in degree programs and be registered full-time. Fellowship recipients are not permitted to accept employment without obtaining approval from the unit and/or agency supporting the fellowship. Visit the Fox Graduate School website for more information about University fellowships and awards.
One example of an internal fellowship is the University Graduate Fellowship (UGF), which is awarded by the College of Health and Human Development to select graduate students upon admission. Graduate students receiving a UGF award are funded for their first year and need not serve as a teaching assistant to the department during that time.
External fellowships include graduate fellowships through the NSF (i.e., the Graduate Research Fellowships Program, which provides support for three years) and the NIH (i.e., the F31 mechanisms, which provides two years of support).
BBH graduate students have been highly successful in the past at obtaining both internal and external awards and fellowships.
Traineeships
Training grants are derived from agencies outside the University and are intended to support specific student learning experiences in core curricular areas and research methods. Institutional awards, typically under the direction of a faculty principal investigator, afford funding and special training opportunities.
Below are several training grants to which BBH graduate students have applied successfully:
- Penn State Center for Healthy Aging “Pathways” T32
- Penn State Prevention Research Center “PAMT” T32
- Penn State Biomedical Big Data to Knowledge "B2D2K" T32
- Penn State Center for Translational and Clinical Science
- Penn State Population Research Institute T32 in Demography
Scholarships
Scholarships are financial awards that support graduate study. Most are awarded by colleges, graduate programs, or outside funding agencies and are based on academic merit. Some awards take into account financial need or other grantee-specified criteria.
Other
There are many other ways that graduate students can obtain funding. For example, multiple BBH students have obtained an NSF Fellowship (which provides support for three full years). There are also college-level fellowships that provide funding for which students can apply, and for which BBH graduate students are often competitive.
Visit the Fox Graduate School website for more information about University fellowships and awards.
Educational loans are available through the Office of Student Aid and eligibility criteria apply. For details about student loan options, visit the Office of Student Aid website.