Incoming students who request financial support and do not hold external fellowships will be awarded Rice University Fellowships, which carry competitive stipends, plus another grant to cover tuition. The department also has a few special awards for Ph.D. applicants with outstanding credentials that are awarded on a competitive basis. These awards carry an additional monetary stipend. Financial support beyond the first year will depend on satisfactory performance in coursework, Ph.D. thesis research and the availability of funds. However, no graduate student in good standing in this program has ever gone unsupported.
Financial support comes from a variety of sources.
The Whitaker Development Award provides several graduate fellowships every year. Predoctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health are awarded to selected students from two active training programs in Molecular Biophysics and Biotechnology. Fellowships in Computational Biology are available through the Keck Center to students pursuing computationally-oriented projects. Graduate research assistantships and fellowships are also supported by numerous faculty research grants awarded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and other funding agencies.