All students who are accepted for admission into our program receive financial support from the Physics Department. Teaching Assistantships include a full tuition scholarship, payment of all laboratory fees for required courses, and a competitive stipend. Stipends begin at $22,100 per year with enhancement scholarships of up to $10,000 per year available from the Graduate School. The average enhancement is currently around $5000.

Research Fellowships are under the direction of principal investigators of research projects, and final decisions concerning recipients are made by the individual faculty members. A typical Teaching Assistantship includes some combination of teaching introductory physics labs, tutoring, and grading.

External Funding

It is often possible to find outside funding for your research, including Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (starting at around $30,000), the Department of Energy, and other federal and private funding agencies. Students from Texas who are working in space related fields are eligible for grants from the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC). Several of our students have been TSGC grant recipients.

Cornell keeps a long list of grants. Keep in mind that not all of the grants listed are available to all graduate students.

Cost of Living

The cost of living is very reasonable in Waco and is much lower than on either coast.