Graduate students entering the physics program may be granted support upon admission on a competitive basis. Typically, this support is in the form of a Graduate/Teaching Assistantship appointment from the department. The financial package for students entering our MS program is typically a total of two academic years. Students in the PhD program can usually count on a total of five academic years of support. After passing the Preliminary Examination doctoral students are often supported by a Research Assistantship from their advisor's research group. In exceptional cases or for students working on a thesis master an advisor may offer research assistantship support earlier in a student's tenure. Tuition and the academic fee for students on assistantships during the academic year is waived.

Further details, such as duties associated with these appointments, may be found under the section on "Financial Support" in the Graduate Handbook [ PDF file ].

Academically outstanding doctoral applicants that show strong potential for successful completion of a doctoral degree (must be U.S. citizens) may be recommended for consideration of a Cunningham Doctoral Scholar Award from the Graduate School. This award (up to two years possible) comes with a matching commitment from the student's academic department. The recipient of this award receives an assistantship for GRA or GTA position with work responsibilities defined by the academic department; the duration is for 9 or 12-month and comes with the tuition scholarship.

This Fellowship is a one-time calendar-year award for an incoming doctoral candidate. It requires no departmental duties. The recipient is expected to excel in the academic work and take time to familiarize her/himself with research to help identify a dissertation topic.

• The Ray F. Tipsword Graduate Scholarship
• The Jamie Dunn Award
• The C.H. Wan Scholarship
• William E. Hassinger Graduate Fellowship
• Award for Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence
• James A. Jacobs Memorial Graduate Fellowship

• DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowships
  (for U.S. citizens and permanent residents)

• Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships (for U.S. citizens)

• Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund Fellowships
  (for women from developing countries)

Other fellowships may be found at the VT Gradauate School site.