Scholarships, Fellowships and Assistantships

CSEE awards research and teaching assistantships on a competitive basis to PhD students with outstanding qualifications.

The 10-month stipend for full-assistantship award is at least $20,000. A full-assistantship typically includes a full tuition scholarship. Assistantship awardees are also eligible for health insurance/benefits. In 2019, the total value of stipend and tuition support for a full assistantship was $28,478 for New York State residents and $37,334 for out-of-state residents.

Applicants and admitted students may also be nominated for additional fellowship support from UB programs, such as Presidential or Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowships, which provide an extra stipend, along with a teaching or research assistantship, or from external sources such as NSF fellowships, which make awards up to $30,000 per year. See the links above to these and other programs.

MS applicants who are New York State residents and have undergraduate GPAs of at least 3.0 (on a 4 point system), may be eligible to receive full or partial tuition scholarships depending on availability of funds.

Typically, teaching and research assistantships with tuition scholarships are awarded on an annual basis. Applicants desiring financial aid should check the appropriate box on the application and comply with the specified deadlines.

Research support is generally administrated by individual faculty members directing research projects and not by the department. However, faculty members consult with the CSEE Director of Graduate Studies concerning the availability of qualified students seeking support. Research Assistants are typically selected from the pool of currently enrolled students that have completed at least one semester of coursework. Requests for research appointments from students not enrolled in the program are rarely considered by the faculty.

Teaching assistantships are awarded by the department on a competitive basis to entering MS or PhD students for one academic year. For MS students pursing the thesis option and PhD students, research appointments are often obtained for continued support.

Occasionally, a teaching assistantship may be renewed for a second year in exceptional cases based on the student's academic performance in graduate courses and assigned duties, along with recommendations from the student's advisor.

The time limit for university support of graduate students is four years for a PhD program.

A score of 55 (out of 60) on the SPEAK test is required for all international graduate assistants. The purpose of the SPEAK test is to assess the spoken English proficiency of non-native speakers of English and to measure their degree of comprehensibility in English. The SPEAK test is given the week before each semester begins. New students must register with the UB Intensive English Language Institute during orientation to take this test. Continuing students must register two weeks before the semester begins.

Outreach:

• AAAS Communication Toolkit

• SEA Change
• Programs from the Center of Science, Policy and Society
• Golden Goose Award
• SciLine
• Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights & Law Program
• Communicating Science: Tools for Scientists and Engineers
• Dialogue on Science, Ethics & Religion
• Science NetLinks

• AAAS Mass Media Fellowship
• AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellows
• ESEP page
• Mirzayan Fellowship
• ComSciCon
• Presidential Management Fellows Program
• John A Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship