Funding

If you are an undergraduate, click here.

Your Ph.D. comes with guaranteed funding (i.e., stipend, tuition, health insurance) while you are in the program. This means you are guaranteed to have a fellowship, Graduate Research Assistantship (RA), or Teaching Assistantship (TA) to support you throughout your time at Georgia Tech. You also do not pay to attend conferences, this is covered via research funds.

Research and Teaching Assistantship

It is my role to make sure that you are supported by an RA, TA, or fellowship for as much of your Ph.D. as possible. Your Ph.D. program will require some (typically two) semesters of TA during your Ph.D., though you could be asked to do more of them.

RAs generally means some sort of grant or research award supports your work. Again, it is my role to raise this money to support your research, or to fit your research into funding that I already have. It is also possible that later in the Ph.D. I will ask you (or you will initiate) for your help in writing a grant proposal in your area. This is good practice for you as a future scientist.

TAs represent a certain, bounded amount of work in terms of hours per week. Your Ph.D. work should be filling the rest of your working hours.

Fellowships

I expect you to apply for appropriate fellowships during your Ph.D. Some have restrictions on citizenship or permanent residency, so you may not be eligible for all of them. Such fellowships include ones from federal agencies, like the NSF GRFP, the DOD NDSEG, and the DOE CSGF or corporate fellowships like those from NVIDIA and IBM.

Usually, these applications are not too much work, and as a side benefit require you to articulate your research vision and interests. When you get one, everyone benefits: you are more flexible in your work to pursue your research direction without the pull of funding needs; I spend more time with you and less time getting grants; and you get a recognition that goes on your CV. Not a bad situation to be in.

Stipend

Your stipend is determined by the Graduate School at Georgia Tech. The Ph.D. stipend is by no means a lot of money, but I believe people have found that it supports a comfortable life that allows you to focus on your studies. On a related note, there is an expectation that your Ph.D. will be your full-time work, though internships, particularly during the summer, are possible and sometimes recommended.