All PhD students in Pharmaceutics receive financial support, usually in the form of a graduate assistantship (teaching assistantship or research assistantship) or a fellowship. As a result, all Pharmaceutics PhD students receive a yearly stipend, free tuition (up to 14 credits per semester), and low-cost health care benefits. Any student with a quarter-time or greater appointment is considered a Minnesota resident for tuition purposes.
Teaching Assistantship
A teaching assistantship (TA) is the most common form of assistantship and is generally assigned to new PhD students, while those beyond the second year generally hold a research assistantship (RA). We prefer to award TAs to new students, rather than RAs, for two reasons:
First, a TA requires a smaller time commitment than an RA, resulting in fewer conflicts with the course load and examination requirements of new students; and second, a TA position provides the practice and skill in oral presentation which is universally recognized as important for pharmaceutical scientists in their professional activities.
Fellowships
We also award PhD fellowships to high-achieving students. Fellowships are supported by the University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy endowments, and the pharmaceutical industry. Some fellowships are awarded through University-wide competitions. In some cases fellowships may permit concurrent assistantships. As with TAs and RAs, fellowships also provide a stipend, tuition waiver, and health insurance benefits.
MS Students
All MS students in Pharmaceutics need to be financially self-supported (through student loans, external educational grants and scholarships, etc.) as assistantships and fellowships are not available at this program level. Information on University of Minnesota graduate program tuition rates can be found here. If you are seeking financial support, you may want to consider applying for the PhD program.