Assistantships, Fellowships and Scholarships:

Currently, 96% of the graduate students in Nutritional Sciences receive some form of financial support for their graduate studies. Students seeking the non-thesis M.S. degree do not receive research assistantships, but may teach courses and receive teaching assistantships. Nutritional Sciences graduate students commonly are supported by one or more of the following sources of funding during their graduate career. Tuition is waived for students on scholarships, fellowships and assistantships.

Research Assistantships

Research assistantships provided by the research grants of their major professors provide the primary source of funding for nutritional sciences graduate students. These funds usually are directly tied to the student's research project; however, some students may receive payment for assisting with research grants that are not a direct component of their dissertation research.

Teaching Assistantships

Nutritional Sciences graduate students are encouraged to get teaching experience during their graduate careers. The Division supports a teaching assistant for Nutritional Sciences 461; however, many other teaching assistantships are available through the participating departments (e.g. Food Science and Human Nutrition or Animal Sciences) or in other departments on campus (e.g. Chemistry, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Cell and Developmental Biology).

Fellowships and Scholarships

Many Nutritional Sciences graduate students receive fellowships and scholarships from the University of Illinois, the UIUC Graduate College and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. In addition, Nutritional Sciences graduate students successfully compete at the national level for prestigious fellowships from professional scientific societies (e.g. American Society for Nutrition, American Society of Animal Science, Society of Toxicology) or funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF).