Fellowships and Financial Support

General Financial Guidance

• For information about stipends, tuition, and health insurance support, please refer to the Program Handbook.
• • Understand Your Finances  - Use these resources to understand Stanford tuition and fees, your student bill and our payment system, other funding sources, and more.
  • Mind Over Money - Programming and resources to increase students' financial wellness
  • Student Financial Services - List of recommended tax resources for both international and domestic students
  • Bechtel International Center - Tax resources for international students
  • Graduate Academic Policies and Procedures (GAP) manual - University policies related to graduate student financial support, fellowships, and assistantships

Financial Support Resources

• Stanford Graduate Support Programs:  The University has created the following programs specifically for graduate students dealing with challenging financial situations. 
  • Graduate Cash Advance Program - A cash advance is a university resource available to you, as a graduate student, to assist you with expenses before your graduate financial support is posted to your student account and/or Tuition Assistantship (TA)/Resident Assistant (RA) salary is paid. 
  • Emergency Grant-In-Aid - Emergency Grant-in-Aid Funds assist graduate students who experience a financial emergency or unanticipated expenses, causing financial hardship. This program is designed to assist in situations where the emergency may impede academic progress, and for those who cannot reasonably resolve their financial difficulty through fellowships, loans, or personal resources.
  • Graduate Student Aid Fund - The Graduate Student Aid Fund assists graduate students with health related University fees such as the Campus Health Service Fee and Cardinal Care Insurance premiums when those expenses create a significant financial hardship.
  • Graduate Family Grant - The Graduate Family Grant will provide up to $20,000 per year per family to eligible graduate students with dependent children. Funds may be used flexibly as needed to cover expenses such as childcare, healthcare and rent.
  • Graduate Housing Loan - Graduate and professional students who will be living off-campus may apply for loan funds to help with move-in costs, such as first and last month's rent and security deposit.  
• Biosciences Financial Support Resources
  • Biosciences Hardship Program - Funds from this program are intended to assist with addressing the needs of students who are experiencing a financial hardship related to the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area or other factors. The fund offers a one-time grant of up to $5,000 (subject to fund availability) per academic year/per household to doctoral scholars who meet the eligibility criteria.  To maximize the impact of our limited funds, we anticipate making grants on the order of $500 – $5000 each.  Students who apply to the Biosciences Hardship Program are also expected to also take advantage of other University resources.
  • Biosciences Travel Grant - PhD students in the Biosciences can apply for awards to present research papers or posters at meetings organized by professional societies, universities, institutes, or other academic organizations. The OGE Travel Grant will award up to $1,000 per awardee once per academic year. OGE Travel Grant applications will be reviewed quarterly. 

Neurosciences IDP Mental Health Support Fund - This is pilot program started during the 2021-22 academic year that provides grant in aid funding to Neurosciences IDP students for mental health costs. Mental health expenses will be reimbursed to reduce copays to $5 per therapist visit or prescription, up to a maximum of $1300 reimbursement per year. The Financial Aid Office prefers to receive one Neurosciences IDP Medical Expense Request Form per student, to cover expenses for the current academic year (past and planned). The program and funds will be managed by the Financial Aid Office to ensure privacy and confidentiality. Neurosciences IDP faculty and staff will not know who requests or receives funding through the program. For more information and a guide to submitting the form click here. 

Fellowships and Funding

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE): - VPGE offers a number of special funding opportunities for graduate students, including fellowships and grants for individuals and groups.

Fellowship Funding Opportunities from the Stanford Research Management Group (RMG) - Find fellowship funding opportunities by searching for sponsor, research topic, eligibility requirements, or deadline. 

Stanford Grant Writing Academy - Offers support in creating proposals and productive writing practice; Training to write and edit efficiently;  Empowerment to elicit and provide effective feedback; and coaching, editing and review of proposals and scientific writings. Hosts the NSF GRFP Summer Program and a NSF GRFP Proposal Library of proposals by Stanford Biosciences awardees.

SBSA’s NSF GRFP Peer-to-Peer Mentoring - Stanford Biosciences Student Association (SBSA) matches NSF GRFP applicants to recent awardees/honorable mentions and facilitates productive, professional relationships between pairs vie e-mail, virtual and in-person communication. The goal of this program is to provide supportive, individualized feedback to each applicant as they prepare their written materials, from another student who recently went through the process.  If you are interested in being matched with a student mentor this summer, please complete this NSF Mentee Form.  For more information about SBSA, go to https://med.stanford.edu/sbsa.html