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Financial aid for graduate study
Applicants admitted to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and that require financial support for graduate study will be funded by financial aid in the form of a:
University Fellowship award and/or
Graduate Research Associateship (GRA)
All applicants seeking Fellowship nomination are automatically considered for admission into our program with GRA support, even if they do not win a Fellowship.
Company or government-sponsored applicants: Applicants whose academic and research costs will be covered by a third-party (such as an employer or scholarship-granting entity) may qualify for partial financial support. Please e-mail the MSE Graduate Studies Coordinator for further details.
Graduate Research Associateship (GRA)
Typically, if an applicant is admitted, s/he will be awarded a GRA position to fund the costs of the degree. All applicants are considered for any available GRA positions. To be considered for a GRA, simply complete the OSU Graduate School application and submit all necessary documents (go to application requirements for complete details). Our department will consider your application for any GRA positions available in the quarter for which you apply. Thus deadlines for GRA consideration are the same as those for application.
A large majority (90+%) of students accepted into our graduate program are supported by a GRA. The GRA position provides the student with:
- 100% coverage of tuition costs and academic fees during all quarters of enrollment.
- Base annual stipends starting at $18,000 (paid monthly on a twelve-month basis). This stipend, in light of the reasonable cost of living in Columbus, allows the student to focus on academics and research.
- Payment of 80% of health insurance premiums.
- Payment of a quarterly computer lab fee. This permits the student access to some of the best computing facilities and equipment on campus.
- Payment of all research costs, plus the opportunity for travel to conferences.
- The total value of this package can be in excess of $45,000 per year.
The tuition waiver covers the costs of a full-time class load; students who hold a GRA position are not responsible for paying tuition costs. A full class load typically consists of about 10 credit hours per quarter of academic course work (about two to three courses) plus credit hours of research time per quarter for each of four quarters per year. Please note that the student is responsible for the cost of books, academic supplies, partial payment of health insurance premiums, parking permits, housing, etc.
As part of the GRA agreement, the student agrees to assist his/her advisor with research work. This commitment comes to approximately 20 hours per week, though this may vary from time to time.
Please note: Since research carried out for a government and/or industrial organization is usually focused on a topic of concern to the funding source, we cannot guarantee that a student's area of interest will always match the available GRA positions for a given quarter.
University Fellowship
The university offers a number of highly competitive Graduate Fellowships to its top applicants. These prestigious awards provide recipients with paid tuition, an ample stipend, and a great deal of flexibility when pursuing a research topic for the Master's or Ph.D. dissertation. Fellowships are awarded once per year (March), but may begin during any of the quarters in a calendar year.
All eligible applicants are automatically considered for nomination to receive a University Fellowship. Completion of the OSU Graduate School application form and submission of all necessary documents by the specified deadline is all that is required for consideration.
Fellowship consideration deadlines
The OSU Admissions Office must be in receipt of all application documents by the date listed below for an applicant to be considered for University Fellowship nomination. To be considered, applicants must submit all required documents by the specified University Fellowship deadlines of:
November 30, 2006 for international applicants
January 13, 2007 for domestic applicants
An applicant must meet all application requirements prior to this date to be considered for a Fellowship.
Fellowship nominees will be notified in mid-March of their status and the outcome of the award competition.
Please note: All applicants seeking Fellowship nomination are also automatically considered for admission into our program as Graduate Research Associates (GRA), even if they do not win a Fellowship.
Note regarding our general admission policy:
In general, the number of applicants we admit for a given quarter is limited to the number of Graduate Research Associateship (GRA) positions available in that quarter.
Our department tends to have 10-20 GRA positions in Autumn; 0-3 each in Winter, Spring, and Summer.
Faculty research needs determine the number of GRA positions available for a quarter. Based on this estimated need, offers of admission are made until that number of positions has been filled. It is rare that applicants are admitted without an accompanying GRA position; i.e., we do not admit students who would pay for their schooling out of their own funds.
Our goal with this policy is twofold. First, we want our students focused on their studies and research work, not on how they will be paying for school. Second, a typical thesis or dissertation in a field such as MSE requires considerable time spent in the lab analyzing materials and using various characterization equipment. The research costs involved in purchasing, preparing, and analyzing a material can be considerable. Students funded by a GRA position are not required to cover any such costs, as these are paid for by the research project.
Company or government-funded applicants
As this implies, applicants funded by a company or government organization--supplying sufficient levels of funding--are encouraged to apply. If the applicant meets the academic requirements for admission and provides proof of funding, s/he may be admitted, regardless of the number of GRA positions available for a given quarter. Please e-mail the MSE Graduate Studies Coordinator for further details.
