Penn Engineering / Department of Bioengineering / Financial Aid Information / Fellowship Awards for Ph.D. Students

Financial Aid Information /
Fellowship Awards for Ph.D. Students

Financial support for all PhD students is made available through a number of sources such as funds from the School, the Department, research grants of the faculty, and industrial sources, as well as from federal and foundation fellowships granted to the student. A given faculty member plays the primary role in selecting a student for a research fellowship supported by his/her grant. The Graduate Group Chair formally makes all fellowship appointments. Full-time students are expected to work full time on research in the summer months. Should a dissertation advisor be unable to provide funding for a student’s stipend and tuition the Graduate Group Chair will work with the student to find another advisor to mentor the student, possibly associated with a change in research topic.

Financial support beyond the first year will require satisfactory performance of coursework, timely completiton of the qualifying examinations and Ph.D. research, and availability of funds. Graduate Research Assistantships and Fellowships beyond the first year are often supported by faculty research grants, group training grant programs, and private foundation support.

To provide maximum flexibility for incoming students to choose the doctoral research area of interest, incoming Ph.D. students are encouraged to apply for pre-doctoral *fellowships, such as those offered from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and private foundations*. Applications for these and other predoctoral support programs are submitted by the student in early fall of their senior year as an undergraduate, or in their first year as a graduate student.

Applicants must submit their completed Online Applications by December 15th. No additional "financial aid" form is required. Fellowship awards are made by letter from the Bioengineering Graduate Group Chair, usually beginning in the early part of March.

Several types of financial aid are available to Ph.D. students:

New: PhD Applicants interested in graduate work in Bioengineering that involves Imaging Sciences and who wish to obtain a grounding in biomedical sciences as part of their training may qualify for support through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute - NIH Interfaces Initiative in Biomedical Imaging & Informational Sciences* as 'HHMI Traines'. Click here for more details .

Type	Eligibility & Coverage	Conditions	Contact for Additional Information
Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)	For students enrolled in MD/PhD or VMD/PhD Programs; provides up to 6 year support for medical and graduate phases of the program, includes both full tuition and stipend.		Dr. Lawrence Brass Dir. of Combined Degree Programs, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104
NSF Graduate Fellowship	Tuition and Stipend		National Science Foundation
The Hertz Foundation	Tuition and Stipend	applying to a PhD program or present enrollment in a PhD program U.S. Citizenship or permanent residency	The Hertz Foundation
Ashton Fellowship	Tuition for 2 years, renewable for another 2 years	Student must be a resident of Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and a U.S. Citizen. Parents and grandparents must have been U.S. Citizens.	Bioengineering Department
Howard Hughes Medical Institute	Successful applicants will be supported (tuition and stipend) for the first 2 years of study and thereafter by the laboratory in which the thesis research is conducted.	Qualifications must be competitive for admission to any Graduate Group at the University of Pennsylvania relevant to Bio-Imaging Sciences.	HHMI
Fontaine Fellowship	Tuition and stipend for 4 years	Student must be a member of certain minority groups, and a U.S. Citizen.	Bioengineering Department

Notes

Part time students are not eligible for financial aid.

Part time work. Graduate students holding full-time fellowships are discouraged from assuming part-time work, since full fellowship implies dedication to scholarly work focused on your academic program. Exceptions to this practice should be rare, are limited to no more than 10 hours per week, and require formal authorization from the advisor, Graduate Group Chair, and the Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research. Authorization forms are available in the Bioengineering office.