The Reliability Engineering Program provides a range of opportunities for financial assistance for its students. These opportunities are all competitive in nature, being offered according to the needs or desires of the sponsor. The majority of the full-time reliability engineering students occupy positions as Research Assistants. The assistantship provides the opportunity for the student to be employed to do important research activities and to be paid for 20 hours per week. In many circumstances, the paid research work can also be part of the thesis or dissertation work of the student.
Financial help is also available in the form of teaching assistants for a number of students.
The teaching assistants support the teaching of courses and the grading of homework at a level that requires about 20 hours per week on average. The University of Maryland provides a number of Black Graduate Student Fellowships to help recruit, retain, and graduate black students into the reliability engineering community in which they are currently under-represented. Students with a superb record of academic accomplishments are eligible to compete for a number of special scholarships and fellowships. Fellowships are available from the Graduate School of the University of Maryland. Special scholarship opportunities also are offered by the Reliability Division of the ASQ professional society.