Financial Aid

Both domestic and international PhD candidates are eligible for financial aid package including $29,000, tuition and health insurance while in the program. Although we do provide aid to most students, aid is allocated on a competitive basis. Alternative forms of financial aid are provided, depending upon the needs and abilities of the students. Scholarships, fellowships, project assistantships, and teaching assistantships are some of the financial aid awards that have been made in the past. These awards provide stipends for living expenses, with most including payment of tuition and benefits. 

Summer support is offered through the teaching of undergraduate classes during the Summer Session. To qualify for such a position, a student must have a syllabus approved by a faculty member who has taught the course in question, must have received favorable teaching evaluations from previous teaching assistantship assignments, and must audition before the PhD committee.

The finance department will pay for professional copy-editing of the final draft of one job-market paper, up to $400, subject to Ph.D. committee approval. Approval will be granted if the student has made a good-faith effort to write his or her paper well and has used available free university resources, such as the writing center.

After reaching dissertator status, each Finance Ph.D. student can receive a one-time grant of up to $300 from the department to be used toward travel to a conference to attend sessions and meet faculty from other universities. Allowable conferences include the FMA, AFA, WFA, and EFA. This grant may not be used to attend either the FMA or AFA conferences in the year the student is on the market. Award of the grant is subject to Ph.D. committee approval.

At any time during the program, if a Ph.D. student is presenting a paper at the FMA, AFA, or WFA meetings, he or she can receive a grant of up to $600 from the department to be used toward travel expenses. This grant is independent of whether the student has used the grant from the paragraph above and may be used to attend either the FMA or the AFA conferences in the year the student is on the market. Grants are only available to Ph.D. students in residence, and dissertators must apply to the graduate school for a Vilas grant in order to be eligible.