Funding Opportunities

FY 2026 12-Month Graduate Assistant Stipends

(as of July 1, 2025)

Step I (M.S. Students): $35,537.06
Step II (Pre-Candidacy Ph.D. Students): $36,118.00
Step III (Post-Candidacy Ph.D. Students): $36,810.00

The Department makes a commitment to support each full-time graduate student with a combination of research and teaching assistantships and fellowships. Support of both M.S. and Ph.D. students is year-round and typically includes tuition remission of up to 10 credits per semester and access to health benefits. The number of graduate assistantships is limited, and they are awarded on a competitive basis.

Students who serve as research assistants will work on a project their faculty advisor is able to get funding for as the Primary Investigator on a grant proposal, generally through federal agencies like the USDA, NSF, or NIH, but also through private sponsors. Students also have the opportunity to get funding for their studies through teaching assistantships (TAs). As a TA for a Biological Sciences course (BSCI), the student may run lab sections, grade coursework, and develop valuable teaching experience.

Research assistantships (RAs) and TAs are generally offered as “regular” (or full-time) assistantships, which require a 20-hour-per-week commitment, while the remaining 20 hours can be devoted to coursework and independent research. These assistantships come with full health plan benefits provided by the University System of Maryland.

The Department of Entomology also offers half-assistantships through the Gahan Fellowship. Faculty apply for it on behalf of their students, and must work with the student and the department to supplement the Fellowship to ensure students are fully funded. This may require a semester of teaching. Graduate students may receive the Fellowship at any point in their studies, but preference is given to finishing Ph.D. students in their final 1 or 2 years of graduate study.

Students may also seek funding through external sources. Two common opportunities are the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (applications may be submitted prior to application or during the first year of graduate school), the USDA NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Predoctoral Fellowship (post-candidacy), and other fellowships listed by the McNair Scholars Program. These fellowships take the place of an assistantship, but the funding guaranteed to a graduate student may still be used if needed.

Two supplementary grants graduate students have tapped to secure funding for their own projects are the Northeast SARE Graduate Student Research Grant Program and the Washington Biologists’ Field Club Grant Program.

If you are interested in applying for these fellowships or grants as a graduate student here, please check in with your advisor as well as the department’s Pre-Award Coordinator (Andy Yeh).