Funding

All graduate students admitted to our program are provided with guaranteed financial support for six academic years of graduate study.* This financial support package includes tuition, most student fees, a monthly stipend, and 85% of OSU's student health insurance. Funding beyond the sixth year is not guaranteed but may be available. 
 

Financial support for graduate students comes through a combination of university fellowships and graduate associateships. Fellowships have no work requirements and provide 12 months of funding. Graduate associateships include 20 hours per week of work as either a research assistant or a teaching assistant and cover a 9 month period (academic year). The stipend levels for fellowships and associateships are set by the university. 

Research assistants work with faculty members in sociology or in other departments on faculty research projects. Research assistant responsibilities may include data collection and management, analysis of data, writing and presentation of results, or other tasks that contribute to ongoing projects.

Teaching assistants work with faculty to support large undergraduate courses, typically by grading or by leading small group lab or section meetings. More advanced students may also work as independent instructors.

In addition to the primary support through stipends, the department also provides travel funds for graduate students to present papers at professional meetings annually and other professional development funds to support graduate research and workshop attendance. OSU’s Graduate School offers an array of additional opportunities for securing additional research and travel funds.

Additional financial support for graduate students in sociology comes from a variety of other sources, both inside and outside the University. In recent years, our advanced graduate students have competed successfully in the university’s Presidential Fellowship for Dissertation Research. Extramural support is also common. Current and recent graduate students have won prestigious support from the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship Program, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Fulbright Program to name a few. Students can also work as research assistants and receive funding through the research grants of faculty members. Our faculty are extremely successful in securing national research grants, and students have been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, The Lilly Endowment, The National Institutes of Health and others.


*The program guarantees nine months of funding (Autumn and Spring semesters) for six years. Graduate students may also apply for summer funding, but availability depends on budget and instructional needs.