PhD Student Funding FAQs

The current stipend rate can be found on the About Graduate Funding page, and current tuition rates can be found on the Student Finance website. The stipend rate is set by the dean of The Graduate School (TGS) and the budget office, and approved by the provost. This rate is typically announced during the winter quarter for the following year. Tuition rates are set by the provost’s office and approved by the Board of Trustees each spring. These rates are typically announced during the spring quarter.

Each program determines on a quarterly basis whether or not students will be funded using TGS funds or other sources (e.g., grants). When TGS funds are used, the program determines if this will be through a fellowship or assistantship for each student. Students should refer to their admissions offer letter or program staff regarding their individual funding.

A PhD student's funding covers tuition, stipend, health services fees, and the annual health insurance premium.  Any other fees, such as the activity fee, are paid by the student.

Students do not receive funding (stipend or tuition scholarship) when registered for TGS 512 and are not eligible for the health insurance subsidy. In addition, they do not pay the activity fee and are not eligible for U-Pass. The current tuition charge for TGS 512 is $100/quarter.

In general, international students are funded the same as domestic students. However, international students must pass TGS's English Proficiency Requirement before they can be funded as a Teaching Assistant (TA).

Additional funding opportunities may be available based on eligibility through The Office of Fellowships, the Evanston Office of Graduate Financial Aid (loans), Interdisciplinary Assistantships (IAships), or TGS Internal Fellowships/Grants. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain approval from their program and coordinate other funding opportunities.

Your Northwestern funding package will be adjusted when you obtain external funding. You do not receive external fellowships on top of your full Northwestern funding.

At the home school’s discretion, PhD students who are awarded and accept full quarters of qualifying internal awards, including interdisciplinary graduate assistantships, or external awards, that provide comparable stipend support might receive a 1:1 match of up to four additional quarters of support to be used through the summer of the 6th year. Banked quarters are earned in any quarter during years 1-5 when a student receives 1-4 full quarters of external fellowship funding covering most of the stipend or internal funding outside of their 20 allocated quarters from TGS covering 100% of the stipend. Please check with your home department or school to determine if your program participates in banked quarters and if the funding is bankable.

TGS does not provide resources for relocation/moving expenses. Please review your offer letter to determine if any start-up assistance was offered by your program.

If a 3^rd party sponsor, such as an employer or scholarship sponsor, pays for a student’s tuition/fees upfront and without any stipulations, then it may fall under third party billing in which case the Student Finance department can set up a third party billing plan and invoice the sponsor directly; however, before they can do this, the student would need to provide them with an official sponsorship letter. The letter needs to be on company/sponsor letterhead and it needs to include the following information:

• Type of charges that will be covered (tuition, activity fee, student health plan, etc.)
• Coverage period (for example: Fall 2021 or 2021-2022 academic year)
• Address/email address where invoice should be sent
• Address where any refund/overpayment should be returned

PhD students in the Humanities and Social Sciences receive 20 quarters (5 full years) of funding. In most programs additional quarters may be banked through the fifth year and used in the sixth year (see banked quarters section below). PhD students in the Sciences and Engineering are typically funded for at least five years through a combination of funding by The Graduate School (TGS) and adviser/program funding. Graduate student funding is a shared responsibility. While financial commitments are made to PhD students for a set number of years, it is important to understand that the overall graduate funding budget is dependent on a significant number of PhD students obtaining external funding.

PhD students are paid year round including over the breaks while they are registered full-time (excluding TGS 512). Please note that the funding quarters do not exactly match the academic quarters. For example, the first stipend payment for new students is for the period of 9/1 – 9/30 even though classes do not start until late September. Conversely, a student who graduates in the Spring quarter (completes in May) is paid through 5/31 even though classes run a couple of weeks into June. Students receive 3 months of stipend for each quarter although the timing does not exactly match the academic schedule. Below are the funding quarters:

• Fall: September – November
• Winter: December – February
• Spring: March – May
• Summer: June- August

No. The University’s funding commitment is standard across all PhD programs. It is not tied to time to degree in order to maximize the funding available to as many students as possible.

Any TGS quarters of funding, outside of eligible banked quarters, such as interdisciplinary GAships, cluster quarters, and competitively-awarded fellowships, such as the Nicholson Fellowship, TGS Buffet Fellowship, Ryan Fellowship etc., are limited to a PhD student’s first five years.

At the home school’s discretion, eligible banked quarters might be used through a PhD student’s sixth year in select humanities and social sciences programs. Please check with your home department or school to determine if your program participates in banked quarters. In addition, there is no limitation on funding from outside of The Graduate School, external funding from outside of the University, or scholarships related to external funding. TGS also continues to provide research assistant scholarships (RAS), health subsidies, and tuition scholarships for PhD students with external funding beyond 5 years across disciplines.

A PhD student will receive a stipend payout through the end of the month in which they complete/submit all degree requirements.

Information can be found on the HR's "TGS Student Onboarding" page.

Even though graduate student fellowships are considered taxable income, federal law does not require taxes to be withheld, and the amount to withhold varies by individual. To help avoid a significant tax payment at the end of the year, students are encouraged to complete a W-4 Form and indicate an amount they would like Payroll to withhold from each stipend payment. Learn more in the Taxes section.

Neither TGS nor University staff can provide assistance related to filing your taxes. Please seek out tax advice from an external tax service provider.

There is not currently a mechanism in place across the multiple University systems to automatically deduct the student activity fee. If a student activity fee is not paid on time, a registration hold may be placed on the account and a late fee may be charged. Please be sure to check your student account in CAESAR every month.

Undocumented students who are not authorized to work in the U.S. must be funded on fellowships for their entire tenure in the program. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a.k.a. Dreamers) students who have work authorization may be funded on assistantships or fellowships.

All fully funded TGS PhD students who are registered full-time (3-4 units) in a fully funded registration in the TGS career (e.g., not registered in TGS 512, TGS 514, CRDV 411 or other unfunded registrations) during the entire fall quarter are eligible for the healthcare subsidy for the full academic year (Sep 1-Aug 31). The subsidy is automatically applied during the fall quarter once the student is registered full-time and is enrolled in the Northwestern health insurance plan.

As long as you received the subsidy and were registered full-time for the entire fall quarter (or the quarter when your subsidy was applied) you do not lose your subsidy even if you depart. Your coverage and subsidy both last through 8/31 of the academic year unless you take action to cancel your health insurance coverage.

Funding for individual students is administered at the program level, so please reach out to your home program with any questions or issues related to your funding including if you did not receive your stipend. If you need additional assistance, please contact the TGS funding team.

Please reach out to your home program with any questions or issues related to student account. If you need additional assistance, please contact Student Finance.