Financial Aid

Every student admitted to the PhD Program will receive full financial support in the form of a graduate assistantship or fellowship.

Graduate Assistants (GAs) are appointed by the chairs of the various departments within the Business School. GA work assignments, in the amount of 20 hours per week, include research assistance, grading, conducting discussion sections, and offering undergraduate classes under faculty supervision. All GA appointments carry UM employee health benefits. The appointments are as follows (2009-2010 stipend levels):

10-Month Stipend Tuition Remission Work Requirement

 

Stipend

Remission of tuition

Work hours per week

Full GA

Step IIA

15,008.00

10

20
 

Step IIB

15,608.00

10

20
 

Step III

16,541.00

10

20

Explanation of the steps is as follows:

Step IIA New incoming first year PhD students.
Step IIB Graduate student in good standing who possesses a master's degree or who has one year of graduate research experience (for a Research Assistantship) or one year of teaching experience (for a Teaching Assistantship) or one year as a Graduate Fellow.
Step III Graduate student in good standing who has been formally advanced to candidacy for the PhD degree.

Stipends: Incoming PhD students will benefit from a stipend of $24,500 during the academic year and, contingent on satisfactory progress demonstrated during the year, supplemented by a Dean's Summer Fellowship of $8,000 -- totaling an annual stipend of $32,500. Renewal of this stipend and summer fellowship can occur for up to five years and is contingent on satisfactory progress each year toward completing the doctorate degree. Additional stipends will be available for doctoral students who advance to candidacy within three years and who publish in top-ranked "A" level academic journals.

Travel and Research Support: In order to increase doctoral students' research output and improve placement prospects, doctoral students will have travel-related costs (transportation, lodging, food, conference registration fees) covered-- up to two conferences a year-- when their papers (as co-authors with faculty or as solo-authors) have been accepted on the programs of prestigious rigorously peer-reviewed professional conferences. Additionally, once the global economic crisis has eased, doctoral students will be provided additional funds to use for purchasing research-related resources that are unavailable on campus or unobtainable in other ways that the students need to be maximally productive in their scholarly work.

The Smith School PhD Program may offer additional fellowships as part of the above GAs in order to make the financial stipend more competitive. Advanced PhD students may also self-nominate for Graduate School Dissertation Fellowships. Additionally, PhD students at the University of Maryland are also encouraged to compete for national awards such as those offered by AACSB, GMAC, AAUW, and private foundations. Some advanced PhD students are also appointed as part-time instructors in the Smith School, and compensated accordingly.