Students in the SwRI/UTSA program receive a Research Assistantship offer. This assistanship covers the tuition and fees for the academic year for a full-time graduate student, as well as a stipend paid out to the student. The stipend is disbursed on the first of every month for the previous month's work. If you start in the fall, your official start date is the start of the semester, and so your first payment will be in October. If you start in spring you will receive your first stipend in February. The Research Assistantship is annually renewed, and allows for research to begin in the first year of the program.