External funding opportunities

The following websites are provided to assist graduate students in identifying external sources of funding. This list is not intended to be all inclusive.

Scholarship search engines

These search engines list private scholarships for current and prospective graduate students. Amounts and application deadlines vary.

Major National Fellowship and Grant Opportunities

Selected major national fellowship and grant opportunities through government agencies, private foundations and associations are linked below. To encourage graduate students to compete for prestigious externally-funded fellowships and grants, the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) have developed several incentives that reward these efforts

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

AHRQ provides an array of intramural and extramural predoctoral and postdoctoral educational and career development grants and opportunities in health services research.

American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowships

Dissertation and career development grants for women in graduate programs who have achieved distinction or show the promise of distinction in their fields. Deadlines vary.

American Council of Learned Societies

ACLS provides fellowships in the humanities and related social sciences at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels.

American Indian Graduate Center

The center offers a variety of funding opportunities for graduate students including MA, MS, PhD, STEM, Medical, Law, MBA, and other professional degrees.

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Foundation

The foundation awards merit based scholarships and fellowships to accounting scholars, including scholarships for minority doctoral students.

Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowships

Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences.

Ford Foundation Fellowship Program

Awards focus on diversity in colleges and universities and are offered at the predoctoral, dissertation and postdoctoral levels.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers research, study and teaching opportunities in over 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students. Master's students are eligible.

Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF)

The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is the largest Hispanic scholarship-granting organization in the nation. It provides financial assistance to outstanding Hispanic students in higher education throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Master's students are eligible.

Institute for Broadening Participation (IBP)

The mission of the Institute for Broadening Participation is to increase diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. 

International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award 

The award supports a first-generation doctoral student, including immigrant students, to continue working on a dissertation under the close supervision of a senior dissertation advisor over an academic year. 

Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Supports a year of research and writing to help advanced graduate students in the humanities and social sciences in the last year of PhD dissertation writing.

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)

Since its creation in 1965, NEH has awarded more than $5.6 billion for humanities projects through more than 64,000 grants.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH offers funding for many types of grants, contracts, and even programs that help repay loans for researchers. Research Training and Career Development programs help prepare individuals for careers in biomedical, behavioral, social, and clinical research.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

The National Science Foundation funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering

National Science Foundation (NSF) - special programs for graduate students

NSF special programs for graduate students provide either direct (i.e., from NSF) or indirect (i.e., from an awardee institution) funding for students at this level or identify programs that focus on educational developments for this group such as curricula development, training or retention.

The Open Phil AI Fellowship

Fellowship for full-time PhD students focused on artificial intelligence or machine learning.

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans

Fellowships to provide opportunities for continuing generations of able and accomplished new Americans to achieve leadership in their chosen fields.

Social Science Research Council

SSRC fellowship and grant programs are targeted to a specific problem, promote individual and institutional change, and are designed to generate new knowledge and build networks.

Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grants

The Wenner-Gren Foundation supports Ph.D. dissertation research that demonstrates a clear link to anthropological theory and debates.

Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in Women's Studies

Fellowships support the final year of dissertation writing for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses topics of women and gender in interdisciplinary and original ways.

Financial Aid

WSU Office of Student Financial Aid

Wayne State Unversity's Office of Student Financial Aid provides assistance to graduate students seeking federal or private loans to help finance their graduate education.

Federal Student Aid Website

Includes information on the need-based grants, loans and work-study funds available through federal student aid and the online version of the U.S. Department of Education's Student Guide to Financial Aid.