Financial Aid For Graduate Students

 

USC Fellowships

A wide range of graduate student fellowships are awarded each year to outstanding applicants to USC.

• USC Fellowships
• WISE Graduate Top-off Fellowships

Other Fellowships

Many other organizations provide full or partial fellowships for graduate study at USC. Ph.D. fellowships are competitively awarded by

• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Department of Defense (DoD), and
• Many private foundations, e.g.:
  
  • Hertz Foundation
  • Whitaker Foundation
  • Switzer Foundation

Many of our students also receive graduate student fellowships from corporation with longstanding ties to USC. Please see the Graduate School for further information regarding these and other fellowships.

Research and Teaching Assistantships

• The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering employ approximately
  • 20 Teaching assistants (TA)
  • 40 Research assistants (RA).
• All students admitted to our PhD program are eligible for these awards and are chosen by a faculty committee at the beginning of January for the following Fall and Spring semesters.
• Research assistantships are awarded by faculty members who have research projects.
• Teaching assistantships:
  
  • are awarded by a committee to incoming students, based on academic performance and faculty recommendations.
  • come with a monthly stipend and tuition waiver
  • are awarded usually with research assistantships to incoming PhD students.
  • may be awarded to outstanding existing students so that classes with laboratory or discussion get qualified TA support.
• Only a few exceptional and outstanding MS students may receive research and/or teaching assistantships in the Department. These awards are highly competitive.
• MS applicants are not considered for research and teaching assistantships.
• All PhD applicants are automatically considered for financial aid.

Requirements

• In order to be considered for Teaching/Research Assistantships and/or University Fellowships:
  • Incoming students
    • Submit a complete university online application.
    • Complete the supplemental application form with your university online application.
    • Have your documents sent in a timely manner (official transcripts, GRE scores, statement of purpose and recommendation letters).
    • December 15 deadline.
  • Continuing students:
    • Fill out the financial aid form
    • Return completed form to Irene Soloff, Student Affairs, KAP212.
    • December 15 deadline.

Graders

• Graders are other forms of financial aid with no tuition support.
• Grader positions are announced on the CEE website at the beginning of each semester.
• Interested students can apply directly with the course instructors.

Graduate Student Loans

• Through the Federal Stafford Loan Program U.S. Citizens and permanent residents can typically borrow up to $18,500 per year to help defer their costs (including tuition and living expenses) to attend USC.
• Information regarding student loans and application forms is available from the USC Financial Aid Website.

Employment on Campus

Other forms of full time/part time non-departmental employment are available at USC.:

• www.usc.edu/dept/personnel/employment
• careers.usc.edu

Employment off Campus

Many of our US citizen and permanent residence students work full or part-time at companies in and around Los Angeles. Apply directly to those companies for positions available. For companies affiliated with the USC Distance Education Network, their students are able to take USC course work at the company site via webcast. Please see DEN