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Funding
Scroll down for links to funding sources
How do Molecular and Environmental Toxicology students pay for graduate training?
Financial Aid
Financial aid is available to eligible students, including those whose ethnicities are underrepresented among biomedical researchers, in the form of research assistantships, traineeships, and fellowships. The METC recommends to the faculty that research assistants receive a stipend of $22,500 for 12 months and pay no tuition. Limited numbers of new Ph.D. students are eligible for those same terms as rotators; in the first semester, they rotate into three different laboratories as research assistants, choosing a final laboratory and mentor at the end of rotations.
Ph.D. students with health-related research interests are eligible for six training grants through the following: Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences); the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, and the Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center; the Chemistry-Biology Interface; and Cellular and Molecular Parasitology, and Biotechnology programs. Outstanding students are nominated for University traineeships and encouraged to compete for national awards.
It is assumed that all applicants will need financial aid. There is no separate application for most kinds of financial aid (for exceptions, see below); simply check the appropriate box on the Graduate School Application form. You should be aware that all traineeships and most fellowships and research assistantships are awarded to students registered for the Ph.D. degree. Students registered for the M.S. degree may well have to provide their own support for some period of their training, particularly the first year. The types of financial aid available to graduate students in Molecular and Environmental Toxicology are as follows:
I. Fellowships
A. Awarded through campus-wide competition; no additional application form is required.
1. University Fellowships. Applicants with excellent GRE scores and GPA will be nominated by METC, provided all application materials are received by METC by December 15. If nominated, you will be notified in mid-February; if you receive an award, you will be notified in mid-March. The award rate for 2007-2008 is $19,032 for 12 months. This amount is generally supplemented by the advisor. Recipients of these fellowships usually have their choice of laboratories for research the first year.
2. Advanced Opportunity Fellowships. Qualified minority and economically disadvantaged non-minority applicants may be nominated by METC for this award. Deadline for receipt of all application materials is December 15, although later applications will be considered if funds are still available. If you believe you might qualify for this award, please call it to our attention when submitting your application.
B. Extramural Fellowships. Awarded by agencies outside the UW-Madison. Deadlines, eligibility and procedures vary. We encourage applicants to explore these possibilities and apply for any appropriate awards. Please check with your own institution's financial aids or fellowships office or the UW-Madison Graduate School Office of Fellowships at http://info.gradsch.wisc.edu/admin/fellowships/index.html for information. Some agencies that make awards follow.
1. Predoctoral Fellowships. National Science Foundation (November deadline); Howard Hughes Doctoral Fellowships in Biological Sciences administered by the National Research Council and open to foreign nationals (November deadline).
2. Predoctoral Fellowships for Minorities. National Science Foundation; Ford Foundation; the Committee for Institutional Cooperation.
II. Research Assistantships
These are provided by individual professors from their research funds to support students working on appropriate projects in their laboratories. The majority of students in the Molecular and Environmental Toxicology program are supported by their mentor's research funding. If you are admitted to the program, your file will be made available to professors who are seeking graduate students. However, once you are admitted you may take the initiative in finding a research advisor by contacting individual professors whose work interests you, using the METC directory as a guide. A visit to campus can be extremely helpful in this respect. If admitted, we urge you to arrange a visit. The program schedules a Recruiting Weekend for visits in Spring.
III. Rotations
One-semester rotation research assistantships may be available to selected entering students from funds provided by the Graduate School and the METC. This allows new students to rotate through three labs during the first (Fall) semester before the student decides on an advisor. Rotation funding awards are made after the Director of the Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center meets with students during the Spring recruiting visit.
The stipend for a rotator research assistantship for is $22,500 (12-month rate) plus remission of all tuition. The student pays segregated fees. Segregated fees for use of campus libraries and other facilities are paid each semester.
Traineeships
A. NIEHS Training Grant. The Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center has been awarded an NIEHS training grant that provides support for the best qualified students who are preparing themselves for research or teaching careers in a health-related field. Students accepting traineeships will be expected to fulfill the curricular requirements for either the biochemical and genetic toxicology, immunotoxicology, or neurotoxicology focal area. Their thesis research will focus on the same area. Only U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are registered for the Ph.D. degree and have full academic standing are eligible to compete for these traineeships.
B. Other Training Grants. Some of our students are eligible for support from other training grants on campus at some time after entry into the Ph.D. program. Examples are Molecular and Environmental Toxicology graduate students placed with professors at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research (Department of Oncology), the Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center (Department of Human Oncology), the Chemistry-Biology Interface training grant, or the Cellular and Molecular Parasitology training grant. Other students may be eligible for support from the Biotechnology training grant. In each case, the student must meet the eligibility and participation requirements of the training grant to which they are applying.
Links To Funding Sources for Gradaute Study
This list is not intended to be all inclusive
UW-Madison Memorial Library - Grants Information Collection
Fellowships
The SmartStudent (TM) Guide in Financial Aid
GrantsNet
Yahoo Financial Aid
Social Science Reserach Council
U.S. Department of Education
American Association of University Women>
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
The National Academies>
National Science Foundation
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