PhD Fellowships and Support
If you have been accepted as a PhD student in Bioengineering, you are what is known as "fully funded," which means that funding will be provided for you that includes tuition, health insurance, and a stipend. Your funding may come from several sources: the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the department of Bioengineering, research grants of the faculty, institutional training grants, industrial sources, as well as funding from direct federal and foundation fellowships to you.
We encourage all students to apply for graduate training fellowships during their graduate studies.
Those of you who apply for and win fellowships prior to matriculating to Penn gain tremendous flexibility in choosing a lab for your research.
Any PhD student awarded an extramural individual fellowship may qualify for a one-time $3,000 bonus in addition to the standard stipend.
Below you'll find some of the most common sources for fellowships and PhD training support. To help you in your fellowship search, the school offers proposal writing workshops annually.
- Ashton Fellowship: The Ashton Fellowship covers tuition. The eligibility for an Ashton fellowship requires the applicant to be a third generation American born citizen under the age of 25 and be a resident of New Jersey or Pennsylvania.
- University of Pennsylvania Fontaine Doctoral Fellowships for Underrepresented Minorities
- HHMI Fellowship available for students interested in Biomedical Imaging and Informational Science
- UPENN Graduate & Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA) Research Student Travel Grant Program
- At www.upenn.edu/curf/fellowships/fellowships.htm are fellowships mainly geared towards undergraduates, but some may be of interest to grad students
- National Institute of Health (NIH)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program
- The Hertz Foundation fellowship support for PhD students in the physical, biological and engineering sciences
- Department of Defense SMART scholarship
- American Heart Association Fellowship (AHA)
- National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program
- Homeland Security Fellowship
- National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering & Science Fellowships
- National Physical Science Consortium Graduate Fellowships
- Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF)
- Health Canada Fellowship Programs
- Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships
- University of Pennsylvania Fontaine Doctoral Fellowships for Underrepresented Minorities
- Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study Excellence and Diversity in the Life Sciences
- Google Lime Scholarship for Students with Disabilities
- Microsoft Graduate Fellowship for Women
- Google Anita Borg Scholarship
- Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
- The Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation Scholarship is available to women graduate students with physical disabilities
- Horizons Foundation Scholarship was established to encourage women to pursue careers related to the national security interests of the United States
- National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering & Science Fellowships
- The PEO Foundation supports graduate education for women with scholarships
- The Business and Professional Women's Foundation created the Career Advancement Scholarship Program to award financial assistance to disadvantaged women who want to further their education
- L'Oreal USA Fellowships for Women In Science (postdoctoral)
- United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP)
- Scientific Chateaubriand Fellowship travel abroad
- FastWeb - largest and most complete source of scholarships available-www.fastweb.com/
- Penn Career Services: Funding Information For Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows