Fellowships and Assistantships

The Graduate School at MSU offers fellowship programs that provide financial support for outstanding students who plan to enroll in a doctoral program. In assisting MSU achieve its educational mission, our goal is to foster an intellectually vital and diverse educational community that will prepare graduate students to assume their professional roles in a diverse society. The fellowship packages are worth approximately $100,000 in tuition, stipend, assistantships, and insurance over four years.

Applicants to our program with exceptional GPAs and strong GRE scores (>80th percentile) have competed well for these fellowships in recent years.

Applicants who would like to be considered for multi-year University and College Fellowships are encouraged to submit their applications earlier than the December 1 deadline, preferably by November 15. For more information about the fellowship programs, visit: http://www.grad.msu.edu/fellowships/. Any questions related to fellowship nomination decisions may be directed to Dr. John Carlson at carlsoj@msu.edu.

For those doctoral students that do not receive fellowship supports, it is typical that four years of a 50% time (20 hours per week) teaching assistantship is provided which covers tuition and a bi-weekly stipend. The Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education department, in collaboration with the School Psychology Program Director, make these assistantship assignments just prior to the start of the fall semester. Specialist students are typically not eligible for assistantships.

Significant funding packages are also available to outstanding students from traditionally underrepresented groups in the profession. The MSU School Psychology Program is deeply committed to promoting students’ multicultural competence, to enhancing diversity within the profession, and to educating scholars and practitioners from traditionally underrepresented groups.

In collaboration with The Graduate School, the College of Education hosts the Advance to Adventure conference to recruit potential graduate students whose enrollment will enhance the educational diversity of the College of Education student body. Consideration is given to applicants based on personal history and experience, research goals, or the promotion of understanding among persons of different backgrounds and ideas. Additionally, attention is given to those who have demonstrated significant academic achievement by overcoming barriers such as economic, social, or educational disadvantage. In particular, this effort within the College of Education is designed to assist our graduate programs in attracting a cohort of diverse students who have traditionally not participated in graduate programs in their units. The MSU school psychology program plans to invite two or three applicants to attend this conference in January with all expenses covered. Interested applicants should contact Dr. John Carlson at carlsoj@msu.edu and send in applications as early as possible.