Financial Aid

The department and the Graduate Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences provide qualified Ph.D. students with full funding, including stipend, tuition, and health care during at least their first five years. All fellowship packages also include two years of summer support, which can be taken in any two summers that the student is enrolled. All fellowship support depends on satisfactory work, which is formally evaluated in each of the first two years.

Funding beyond the guaranteed five years is available from the following sources within the university:

1. University fellowships. Awarded competitively across the University.
2. Teaching assistantships. Students are required to teach for two years (four semesters), generally during the second and third year. Depending on the size of the course, students may teach recitation sections or conduct classes.
3. Research assistantships. Students may aid faculty members on their research projects.
4. Lecturerships. For experienced graduate students, generally beyond the second year, who teach undergraduate courses (mostly in the College of General Studies) and work with undergraduates in the department.

In addition, our students enjoy extraordinary success in earning outside awards, including (but not limited to) fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, the Fulbright program, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Social Sciences Research Council, the Miller Center and many others. Recently we have enjoyed a 100% success rate on winning SAS Dissertation Research and Dissertation Completion Fellowships.  Recent awards also include

Fulbright-Hays
Guggenheim pre-doctoral fellowship Hagley Library and Museum. Research Grant
HSS/NASA Fellowship in the History of Space Science
IEEE Fellowship in Electrical History
NSF Dissertation Completion Grant
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Pottruck Graduate Presidential Prize Fellowship
Pressman Fund Award

Graduate students in our program also engage in part-time research and teaching at Philadelphia's many technical and educational institutions and in various University research programs