Graduate Student Funding

Beginning in the 2nd year, Cell Biology students are supported by one or more sources of funding: training grant(s), individual fellowships, mentor funding, or institutional funding.  Continued funding is contingent on full-time enrollment and satisfactory progress, as determined by the dissertation committee in the student’s annual review meeting.

The CDB Graduate Program science is quite diverse, allowing intersection with many of the eleven NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional training programs (T32). Students typically apply for institutional training grants during the spring semester of their first year, and are supported for up to two years. Through 2018, CDB program students have been very successful in securing appointments to institutional training grants:

• 65% of eligible CDB students have been appointed to the Cell and Molecular Biology training program
• 16% of eligible CDB students have been appointed to the Biotechnology training program
• 3% of eligible CDB students have been appointed to the Immunology training program

Students are strongly encouraged to apply for individual fellowships (NIH, NSF, other agencies, private foundations) and can seek fiscal guidance from the department business manger or grants accountants as directed by the faculty mentor. Several CDB students have secured individual external fellowships.