Fellowships and Awards

Graduate Engineering Honors Fellowships

Students selected for the Graduate Engineering Honors Fellowship Program receive a half-tuition scholarship for the first year of graduate study. The award may be renewed for one additional year for Masters and Professional degree students or two additional years for doctoral students, providing scholarship criteria are met. Fellowship recipients must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Richard E. Merwin Memorial Award

This award is given annually to an outstanding doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Merwin (1922-1981) served his profession as a research professor in the department, as President of the IEEE Computer Society, and as editor of IEEE Transactions on Computers, and worked on ENIAC, this country's first electronic computer. The award is $3,000 for one year and is made to a full-time D.Sc. student, based on academic merit. This award is not renewable.

Heikemian Fellowship

This fellowship provides a stipend of $7,500 to an outstanding graduate student in a program leading to a graduate degree in computer science. The student must conduct research in the area of analog circuits as part of his degree program. The fellowship may be renewed.

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships

Competitive awards are made to graduate students providing tutition, fees, and stipends. Open to students who have been admitted to graduate study and have completed less than one calendar year of that study. Application forms and information is available from the Fellowship Office, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington D.C. 20418.

Assistantships

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

The department offers teaching assistantships. Each assistantship is awarded for a duration of one semester (unless otherwise stated) and is renewable. Provided good academic performance is maintained by the student and eligibility requirements are met, the department gives preference to applicants who have previously held an assistantship. However, the maximum number of semesters that a master's student may hold a teaching assistantship is 4 and the maximum number that a doctoral student may hold a teaching assistantship is 8 (not including those held while in the M.S. degree program).

Teaching assistants must be full-time graduate students and must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.0. They are required to teach either a laboratory or two recitation sections each semester, in return for which they receive tuition for 9 credit hours per semester plus financial compensation of $1,200 (M.S. students) or $1,200, $2,000, or $3,500 (D.Sc. students) for the semester.

International students who apply for graduate teaching assistantships must have minimum scores of 570 on the TOEFL (55 in listening comprehension) and 250 on the TSE. All those selected as teaching assistants must attend a two-day orientation and evaluation program held the week prior to registration.

Graduate Research Assistantships

Although research assistantships are normally awarded to students already in residence, new students with outstanding credentials in a particular research area may occasionally be selected. New students interested in becoming research assistants should ensure that their application materials include documentation of previous research experience.

Students selected for these assistantships work 20 hours per week during the academic year, and often full-time during the summer, conducting research in support of an established research project. Stipend awards range from $3,000 to $12,000, and tuition assistance may also be provided in some instances. Responsibilities may include programming, carrying out experiments, and conducting literature surveys. Research assistantships are renewed on the basis of performance and continued availability of funding.

Other Financial Aid

Resident Assistantships

Resident assistantships are available to graduate students working with the student personnel program in University residence halls. Duties basically consist of counseling, advising student groups, and administration. Remuneration includes partial tuition and a furnished room for the academic year. Information may be obtained from the Office of the Director of Housing and Residence Life.