Financial Information

Nearly all students enrolled in the Ph.D. program will receive generous financial support from the Department of Chemistry and the Graduate School including:

• A highly competitive and generous stipend ($24,500 for the twelve-month 2008-2009 academic year)
• Complete full-time tuition coverage (valued at $29,300 for the 2008-2009 academic year) and
• Comprehensive individual medical insurance.

As an assistantship recipient, you will gain significant experience in teaching by leading undergraduate laboratory or recitation sections. This is an invaluable opportunity for those seeking to pursue an academic career after graduation, as do a third of our graduates. Most of our students serve as teaching assistants for approximately two years, and are supported financially as research assistants by their mentors in subsequent years.

Details of other departmental and university awards are listed below and may also be found on the Graduate School’s website.

Espenscheid Fellowship

To demonstrate the importance of the qualifying examinations, the Department of Chemistry offers an Espenscheid Fellowship to all students who (a) have not been enrolled previously in a graduate degree program in chemistry and (b) reach “excusing level” on four qualifying exams taken in the first attempt. The Espenscheid Fellowship serves as a supplement to the student’s stipend. Espenscheid Fellows are not required to teach during the summer after their first year, thereby affording them more time to conduct research.

Georgetown University Fellowship

Georgetown University Fellowships are highly-competitive and prestigious awards offered to the most outstanding applicants to doctoral programs in the Graduate School. University Fellows receive a supplemental stipend plus full tuition support for up to five years, assuming satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D. University Fellows are required to provide service to the Department, either as research or teaching assistants, for a total of three years, and the Department decides which years of the fellowship will be used for Department service. Fellows, as all other students receiving financial aid, are reviewed annually.

The University Fellowship is offered to a limited number of newly-admitted Ph.D. students each year. On the basis of departmental nominations, a Graduate School Fellowship Committee will recommend the awardees to the Dean of the Graduate School.

Because departmental nominations are due in early to mid-March, only applicants whose applications are complete by 1 March will be considered for departmental nomination.

Patrick Healy Graduate Fellowship

The Patrick Healy Graduate Fellowship is a competitive award designed to attract and support the most talented students from those groups least represented in the professoriate. Named in honor of Georgetown’s 28th president, the first African-American president of an American university, the Fellowship’s goal is to increase the cultural, ethnic, and economic diversity of persons being prepared for careers as college and university professors.

Support will be provided to Patrick Healy Fellows for twelve months per year for up to five years, assuming satisfactory progress toward the Ph.D. The Patrick Healy Fellowship is offered to one Fall semester matriculant each year. On the basis of departmental nominations, a Graduate School Fellowship Committee will recommend the awardee to the Dean of the Graduate School. To be eligible for the Patrick Healy Graduate Fellowship, a departmental nominee must be a U.S. citizen or Permanent Resident who is a member of those groups under-represented in the professoriate (e.g. African-Americans, Native Americans, etc.).

Because departmental nominations are due in early to mid-March, only applicants whose applications are complete by 1 March will be considered for departmental nomination.

CONACyT Fellowship

Georgetown University has an exciting partnership between its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and El Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (CONACyT) in the area of doctoral education. Each year Georgetown University accepts up to forty Mexican CONACyT fellows within its doctoral programs in the sciences and social sciences. Fellows who continue to meet academic qualifications will receive up to five years of support. This opportunity is open to applicants with Mexican citizenship. For more information, please refer to the following website: http://grad.georgetown.edu/pages/1conacyt.cfm.