Funding for Graduate Studies

Cornell funding packages are formally approved by Cornell University based on the annual projected budgets of the graduate school and the colleges that allocate resources. As a result, each cohort’s funding package (and size) can vary slightly. For legal purposes, the letter of admission, not this website, constitutes the official “contract” between the prospective graduate student and Cornell University.

Cornell funding packages typically offer six years of support, covering all tuition and providing a stipend for living expenses (including during the summer). In recent years, the field has been able to support students beyond their fifth year, usually through grant-funded graduate research assistantships. Some students are also admitted with funding that they secure from foundation and government sources.

At Cornell, Ph.D. students are fully funded to pursue their degrees through a combination of competitive internal and external fellowships and research and teaching assistantships. Funding packages include tuition, health insurance/health fee, and a living allowance or stipend.

Internal fellowships:

The most common form of Cornell funding is the Cornell University Fellowship, known as the SAGE fellowship. The fellowships cover tuition and provide a stipend for living expenses. In the first year and the “dissertation year,” students are not expected to work as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, or Graduate Research Assistant. During the other three years, the student is required to work as a TA, RA, or GRA.

External fellowships:

Many of our students have been successful in national competitions for external graduate fellowships sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Jacob Javits Foundation, and others. Students are encouraged to work with their director of graduate studies (DGS) and/or special committee chair to develop effective application materials for these opportunities. The Graduate School also provides information on external fellowships and grants.

The University also offers fellowships in Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, and European Studies. Students can combine work in sociology with language area studies. Application for support should be made to the director of the relevant area program at Cornell.

Many of these external fellowships are intended for students who are citizens or nationals of the United States. Applicants from foreign countries should seek aid from their own governments or universities or from a U.S. agency operating abroad, such as the Institute for International Education or the Fulbright-Hays Program. The advising center at the applicant’s undergraduate school may assist in the search for funding of graduate study.

Students are expected to apply for outside funding, preferably at two points in their academic careers: in the first year (or even prior to the first year), and before the dissertation stage. To be eligible to receive the second, dissertation-year Sage and Dean’s Excellence fellowship, all eligible students in Sociology must apply for an external fellowship that will cover a substantial share of the stipend and tuition. (“External” means external to Cornell, not just external to the Field or Department of Sociology.) This application should be submitted before the start of the dissertation-year fellowship. Students should consult with their Special Committees, the DGS, and the Grad School website to identify fellowships for which they are eligible.  Qualified external fellowships will replace internal funding. If a student receives an external fellowship or grant, they should notify the GFA as soon as possible. Cornell will supplement qualified external awards. Only students who have received external funding sufficient to cover a semester (or more) of stipend plus tuition and fees can use a dissertation-year Sage or Dean’s Excellence fellowship after their 12th semester.

Students are strongly encouraged to obtain external financial support that can be used to pay research expenses, conduct field research for the dissertation, or provide additional support for the dissertation research. Many of our students have, for example, received NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grants or international travel grants from the Einaudi Center to support their doctoral research. Information about other sources of support can be found in the Graduate School’s fellowship database and from the DGS.

Graduate students often receive additional funding to support their pre-dissertation research efforts. The Department has, in recent years, been able to offer students small research accounts to support their pre-dissertation research expenses. Many of our students have also received “seed grants” from the Center for the Study of Inequality to conduct inequality related research, broadly defined. The Center for the Study of Economy and Society also occasionally funds students’ projects. Travel grants are available from the Graduate School for students who are presenting their solo- or co-authored research at national or international conferences. Other pots of money are available around campus for those with the initiative to go after them!

Students applying to our PhD program are eligible to compete for a prestigious Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) that has the theme of Food Systems and Poverty Reduction. This IGERT, managed by Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development, provides 2 years of generous financial support to successful candidates and offers supplementary training for students in the first 1-2 years of their doctoral program. By undertaking supplementary coursework and participating in a unique 6 month field research experience in Africa, selected students learn to work as members of interdisciplinary teams and to integrate concepts and methods from across food system-related disciplines in both the natural and social sciences. This highly competitive, National Science Foundation program can only provide financial support to US citizens or permanent residents. For more information, please visit the program website.