Funding Resources

Competitive Funding Opportunities

University Fellowship Opportunities for PhD applicants

In order to be considered for nomination in many University and College Fellowship competitions, required GPAs can be as high as 88% or 3.6/4.0. (Professionals evaluate international grading scales differing from these.) Our top applicants often are nominated for these awards during the admissions process. Fellowship awards can be combined with other funding sources. We work hard to make sure prospective PhD students find strong research and funding matches before admission.  

External Fellowship Opportunities

Applicants also should seek fellowship funding from agencies such as National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or National Institutes of Health (NIH) to name only a few.

Applicants are encouraged to consult research mentors for information on graduate school funding opportunities. Additional helpful funding resources are listed by the Ohio State Graduate School

Also, at InfoEd SPIN, students can filter and search a database with many good leads for upper-level undergraduates and/or first-year graduate students, by application deadline, research area, funding source, and more.

Graduate Associate Appointments

Other forms of financial assistance in graduate school include paid positions of Graduate Research Associateship (GRA), Graduate Teaching Associateship (GTA), and Graduate Administrative Associateship (GAA). These types of appointments may be attached to a specific faculty member and cover tuition and fees while offering a monthly stipend for 20 hours per week of lab activities. All admitted PhD students are considered for opportunities of these types, but PhD students are strongly encouraged to contact faculty directly about funding opportunities in their specific labs and areas of research interest early in the application process. 

Most funding is aimed at PhD students. The expectation is that the MS is a self-funded degree; however, some MS applicants manage to find funding leads on their own.

Current BME students have obtained GRAs with our departmental and affiliated graduate faculty. Many have earned funding in the form of Fellowship awards from sources such as HHMI, Pelotonia, Ohio Lions, NSF, and NIH. More have found GTAs within BME or in University departments such as chemistry, math or in the College of Engineering's first-year engineering program. GAAs often can be found at the university libraries and in student service offices.

Explore as many resources as you can!