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Financial Aid

The Graduate School, and Sociology Department, are committed to ensuring all PhD students are financially supported during their education, through a combination of institutional and external funds, for the majority of the time they are registered and working toward their degree.

As part of this, all admitted students to the Sociology PhD Program are offered a 5 year (including summers) funding package. The standard Graduate School funding package for Sociology PhDs consists of a stipend (in the form of University Fellowships and Graduate Assistantships), full tuition scholarships and a full health insurance subsidy for the Northwestern University Student Health Insurance Plan for 20 quarters (5 years and 5 summers).

Students are strongly encouraged to apply for external funding during their first 5 years, which can extend this funding up to 1 additional year (see TGS External Award Policy). If an external fellowship does not meet the Northwestern Fellowship rate for that year, students may be eligible to have the stipend topped up to the Northwestern Fellowship rate (see TGS External Award Policy for more details).

More details can be found in the Sociology Grad Student Handbook, The Whole Hooey