Funding graduate school

Finding funding is an integral experience of most graduate students’ post-baccalaureate endeavors. The majority of funded graduate students earn appointments as graduate assistants. In fact, some programs will not admit a student unless they secure a graduate assistant position. Similar to most other job searches, many graduate assistant positions require an application, record of previous employment, statement of skills, and an interview. GA positions, as they are commonly called, frequently appear in job listings as teaching appointments (as associate instructor or an adjunct), administrative work in a campus office, or research. Graduate Assistantships are often institution specific, some are even departmentally assigned. (For help finding Assistantships at IU, visit or contact the GradGrants center http://www.indiana.edu/~gradgrnt/ .)

A more flexible, and accordingly much more competitive, source of funding exist as portable funding. Portable funding refers to financial assistance that is not tied to a specific institution and thus may be used at any institution accepting the funding.

See the following list of websites to find and further explain portable funding:
* US News & World Report – http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-graduate-schools/paying
* Grad schools website has a page dedicated to portable funding – http://www.gradschools.com/article-detail/graduate-fellowships-1676
* The National Science Foundation offers multiple fellowships each year – http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12759