Financial Support

Our Ph.D. students are awarded financial support with the understanding that the support will continue— subject to satisfactory progress and satisfactory performance of assistantship duties—for at least 5 years or until completion of the Ph.D. program, whichever comes first. Students continuing in studies beyond five years are usually also supported, assuming satisfactory progress is being made toward the Ph.D. dissertation.

Ph.D. student financial support consists of:

  • a scholarship that pays for all tuition and fees,
  • an assistantship with either teaching or research duties that provides a stipend adequate for living in Durham, and possibly
  • a fellowship that provides additional money for the student.
  • Financial support is guaranteed for 12 months per year

For more details on funding, please see the Graduate School's information on Financial Support.

External Funding

Students who are eligible for external financial support such as fellowships from the NSF or from their home countries are expected to apply for external support. (See the Graduate School financial support for details.)

Teaching and Research Assistantships

Students on assistantships collaborate with faculty on either teaching or research during the academic year. Assignments change from semester to semester. Assistantship support is available over the summer. In addition to Duke-based research summers, many students gain summer internships. Some recent research interns have spent summers in groups and labs at, for example, AT&T Research, Barclays Financial, BEST Inc (see the BEST Award page), Google Research, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, SAS, and Yahoo, among others.