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. As part of their five year funding, students are required to teach for two years (four semesters), generally during the second and third year, as recitation leaders or graders.

Funding beyond the guaranteed five years includes fellowships from within the university, from outside sources, and teaching. Follow the link to the left to see a longer list of dissertation funding.

Within the university:

  • University fellowships. Awarded competitively across the University.
  • Research assistantships. Students may aid faculty members on their research projects.

Outside funding:

Our students have an extraordinary success rate 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.  Recent awards 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
SAS Dissertation Research Fellowships
SAS Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Teaching

There are teaching opportunities for experienced ABD graduate students in the College of Liberal and Professional Studies during the summer sessions.  There are also teaching opportunities at Philadelphia's many other technical and educational institutions and in other University programs.