Financial Matters

Doctoral (Ph.D.) Funding

The faculty are committed to providing financial support to Ph.D. students who are making satisfactory progress toward the degree. The resources made available for stipends and tuition waivers are limited, however, and may vary to some extent from year to year. Most Ph.D. students in the Psychological Sciences Department have received five years of financial support from the program during their tenure at Rice. Only full-time Ph.D. students may receive stipends from Rice funds or from research grants and contracts awarded to Rice.

Funding Details

Most Ph.D. students receive a tuition waiver.

Most new matriculants entering in fall 2022 will be funded for five years with a $28,050 stipend from the department per academic year, during which the student is expected to be in residence.

Alternative Funding

To allow the department to support as many students as possible, students who qualify are encouraged to seek support from sources outside the department.

During their first year in the program, Ph.D. students who qualify are expected to apply for Fellowships from the NSF, NIH, DOD, Ford Foundation, and other funding agencies. The faculty advisor and the graduate student affairs committee will advise students on the appropriate funding agency. Students at later stages of the program are expected to apply for other support (e.g., APA dissertation awards) where appropriate.

Other support opportunities can usually be arranged, particularly for advanced Ph.D. students. For example, many students have been placed in relevant part-time positions or internships in local industrial, consulting, medical, and government organizations. In fact, internship experiences are a specific part of the industrial-organizational and human-computer interaction specialties.