Graduate Recruitment Fellowships/Assistantships

Fellowships and Assistantships for Incoming Doctoral Students

Once admitted, students are encouraged to work with their assigned faculty advisor to determine if fellowship and/or scholarship funding may be available. Online/hybrid students may not be eligible for funding, but are encouraged to work with their assigned faculty advisor to determine if any funding may be available.

The following prestigious recruitment Fellowships and Assistantship for new incoming doctoral students are reviewed and awarded at the Department level, and provide up to 4 years of funding. The number of fellowships awarded varies each year based on available funding.

Purdue Bursar’s Office – The University DOES NOT permit students enrolled in a professional graduate program that are either residential, hybrid or online to receive any fee remission associated with graduate staff appointments (Graduate Research Assistant, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Graduate Professional, etc.) or to receive graduate tuition scholarships associated with Purdue fellowships. Enrollment in these programs prevents you from receiving faculty, staff and staff dependents discounts and fee remissions.

Nomination Procedures

To be considered for a Ross, Andrews, or the Dean’s Doctoral Research Assistantship, or the Ross-Lynn Research Scholar Fund (Assistantship), you must be admitted to the PhD program, AND you must be nominated by a program-area faculty member. Nominations are reviewed and awarded at the department level by a graduate education committee. Faculty nominations to the committee are due the 2nd Friday in January.

In order to be nominated:

• Ensure your graduate school application is completed with all supporting documents no later than your program-area application deadline (EDCI deadlines | EDST deadlines). For programs with rolling admissions, your application must be completed by December 31.
• You are encouraged to communicate directly with a program-area faculty member to discuss the program and request nomination for one of the above fellowships/assistantships.

To nominate an incoming PhD for the Ross Fellowship, Andrews Fellowship, or the Dean’s Doctoral Research Assistantship, a College of Education faculty member must submit the nomination form available on the College’s InfoReady site – https://edupu.infoready4.com/ [Form name: Fellowship Nomination Form (Ross, Andrews, Dean’s Assistantship)]. The nomination form will be available during the call period, typically beginning in early November. Nominated students must have completed their admissions application and should be admitted prior to submitting the fellowship nomination form.

Faculty will need the following files in Word or .PDF format from the student’s admission application to upload into InfoReady: Statement of Purpose, Personal History Statement, and CV. Faculty will also need additional information from the student’s admissions application to complete the fellowship nomination form (e.g., education history, GPA, GRE Scores, etc.). Faculty may obtain these files and information directly from the student or they may contact the College of Education Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) for assistance downloading these files from the student’s admissions application.

General Assistantships for Incoming Graduate Students

General Assistantships may be available for students without a fellowship, on a per-semester basis. Most assistantships are half-time (0.50 FTE), but you may be offered the opportunity to work quarter-time (0.25 FTE), or three-quarter-time (0.75 FTE). FTE means Full-Time Equivalent, which is ordinarily assumed to mean 40 hours of work per week. International students, by law, may not exceed 0.50 FTE, or half-time employment, during the fall and spring semesters.

Contact your department for information about how to apply for available assistantships. You must be admitted to the Purdue Graduate School before you will be offered an assistantship. Once admitted, students are encouraged to work with their assigned faculty advisor to determine if funding may be available. Students enrolled in online/hybrid programs are typically not eligible for assistantships.

As a Teaching Assistant (TA), you might lead one or more sections of an undergraduate class with responsibility for preparing and delivering lectures and evaluating student work, you might oversee a recitation or laboratory section for a large lecture course, or you might supervise student teachers in the field. Most teaching assistantships require, or at least strongly prefer, that you have prior K-12 teaching experience because most courses deal with K-12 teacher preparation. These appointments are typically for 10 months and extend from about August 15 to May 15. TAs selected to teach Summer School classes receive additional paychecks, but usually there are few summer TA slots available. International students whose first language is not English must satisfy oral English proficiency standards to be offered a teaching assistant position.

As a Research Assistant (RA), you would perform research-related tasks, typically under the direction of a faculty member. You might work in a laboratory, collect observation data in a classroom, or type transcripts from recorded interviews. These appointments are most typically available from faculty members who have been awarded research grants.

As an Administrative Assistant, you would perform administrative tasks under the direction of faculty or staff members. Although fewer of these jobs are available, they are usually 12-month appointments. Examples include auditing the transcripts of teacher licensing candidates or maintaining a department’s website.