Prospective Students

Doctoral Program

Financial Aid

A full financial aid package is awarded to all students accepted into the doctoral degree program at LER, regardless of citizenship. A typical financial aid offer couples a waiver of tuition (resident or non-resident) and service fees with a fellowship stipend and/or a research assistantship. A typical research assistantship stipend for a doctoral student runs between $10,000 - $20,700 per year.

If you are entering the program after completing your bachelor's degree, you can expect to receive up to four years of financial aid. We provide three years of aid if you enter the program after completing your master's degree. To continue receiving financial aid however, you must show that you are making satisfactory progress toward your degree and performing satisfactorily as a research or teaching assistant.

LER encourages its doctoral students to take part in scholarly and professional meetings by presenting papers, presentations at poster sessions, organizing a program session, or other invitational activity. To encourage this activity, the School provides doctoral students with conference travel support.

Ph.D. students may also request funding to support dissertation research. With the endorsement of your faculty advisor, LER will provide one such grant during the course of your research. Additional support opportunities are available from our Campus Research Board and from external funding agencies.

The University of Illinois has very competitive financial aid packages for minority students and scholars of exceptional ability. Contact Professor Craig Olson at caolson@illinois.edu or Becky Barker at ebarker@illinois.edu for more information about financial aid for doctoral students.