Fellowships

Being a graduate student in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics is a full time job. Whether taking classes, teaching, or doing research, the time and intellectual commitments to your "job" are large. How do you, then, go about keeping yourself housed and fed? The general rule is that students are accepted into the department to pursue a Ph.D. only if funded by the department at least for their first year in graduate school. Generally, students accepted into a Masters degree program are not funded by the department. There are exceptions to both rules, and you need to understand your financial situation prior to coming to OSU.

The department generally provides funding for first year graduate students in the form of assistantships, normally in the form of a teaching assistantship. By the summer term of your first year, it is up to you as a student to gain acceptance into a major professor's laboratory after doing laboratory rotations in 2-3 labs. Then you must arrange for support from that lab or sometimes seek funding through grants and scholarships for the remainder of your degree program. Funding within a lab during your tenure may be contingent upon the lab's financial situation and your productivity. Funding cannot be taken for granted, and it cannot be expected to extend beyond the five-year period most students use to earn a Ph.D.

You may seek a major professor from the department's regular faculty or from the list of affiliate faculty members. There are advantages and disadvantages to working for someone outside of the department. One disadvantage is that affiliate faculty members may have a different concept of what is required for a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics. The student must work with the department chairman and his/her advisor to clear up these ambiguities.

Information on OSU Graduate Fellowships & Scholarships

Fellowships and scholarships for graduate study are awarded on the basis of academic merit and/or financial need. Fellowships usually provide a stipend and, in some cases, tuition remission and a research allowance. Scholarships usually cover direct educational expenses, such as tuition and fees. Some fellowships and scholarships are awarded institutionally, either by the Graduate School or by academic college and department committees, while others are awarded by external agencies such as the National Science Foundation. These pages provide an extensive catalog of fellowship programs at OSU, hundreds of links to external fellowship opportunities, scholarship search engines, and some helpful hints to aid your search.