Graduate Studies
FINANCIAL AID
Graduate Assistantships:The primary form of financial aid for first-year graduate students is the teaching assistantship. A half-time appointment as a teaching or research assistant carries a stipend of about $1,618 /month for the nine-month academic year. Tuition for students with half-time appointments is waived, and health insurance is provided. The Department often offers an additional partial fellowship stipend to top applicants. A few incoming students are offered research assistantships. Ph.D. students and many master's students are generally supported by research assistantships once they begin their research. Graduate assistants are expected to help with teaching, laboratory work, or research of a character that affords them useful experience. Half-time teaching assistantships in general require that approximately 20 hours per week during the academic year be devoted to preparation, grading and consulting with students. Half-time research assistantships are, in general, for approximately 20 hours per week also. Combined teaching/research assistantships are also possible. Ordinarily half-time assistantships permit a student to carry a full schedule of his/her own courses. If you enroll for more than 14 credits per semester you will be responsible for the additional tuition. Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics students generally do not register for coursework in the summer.
Benefits:Tuition, health, and dental insurance are provided to students admitted with financial assistantships from the department. Support continues as long as satisfactory progress is maintained. In addition, eligible students may elect to purchase dependent health and dentral care. More information on this can be found at:
***Note: Teaching assistantships in the first year, give students the opportunity to become familiar with the research program with the department prior to selecting a research advisor. Students should make every attempt to move to a research appointment after the spring semester of their first year -- it is possible and not uncommon to change to a research appointment before that time. Please be aware that support from the Department beyond the first year is contingent upon the availability of funds. Priority for departmental positions is given to students making timely progress towards their degrees.
If you are interested
in a teaching assistantship or other financial aid, you need to complete the
following AEM application form, available as Word or 
PDF(130KB), and send it to the
address located on the form. Note: You must first be admitted to the
Graduate School before you can be awarded an assistantship.
Graduate School Fellowships (GSF):The Director of Graduate Studies for the program nominates student(s) to this all-University competition. GSF(s) are intented to assist in the recruiting of outstanding Ph.D. students by providing full-support academic-year merit fellowship. Prospective students with outstanding records who enter the University of Minnesota Graduate School for the first time in the upcoming academic year are considered. The nomination deadline is mid-January for the following academic year.
Department Fellowships:A select number of students are awarded departmental fellowships and typically used to as support in addition to the assistantship.
Other Fellowship Opportunities: Other fellowship opportunities are available to first year graduate students who are citizens and/or permanent residents of the United States. More information on these can be found at:
Top of pageLast Modified: 2007-07-24 at 10:04:45 -- this is in International Standard Date and Time Notation