The Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois

The Department of Chemistry provides year-round financial support to all full-time graduate students in good academic standing. This support includes a waiver of tuition and most fees, health insurance, and a generous stipend that covers living and transportation expenses. In this way graduate students are free to concentrate on their education.

The main forms of this financial support are fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships.

Fellowships are generally assigned on a competitive basis. There are several sources of fellowships: outside sources like the National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and the Hertz Foundation, University-wide fellowships, and departmental fellowships like the Roger Adams Fellowship. Our students have had great success in winning outside fellowships, which are often augmented by an additional assistantship stipend through the department. We encourage all eligible undergraduate applicants to pursue these outside fellowships. 

Research assistantships provide support for students actively engaged in their thesis research, and usually begin in the second year of graduate school, after most classwork has been completed. Prior to this point, most students have teaching assistantships as they take classes and fulfill their teaching requirement. The duties of teaching assistants generally involve conducting laboratory or quiz sections for undergraduate courses or working as a grader in more advanced courses. The assignments are made in accord with the student's background and interests insofar as possible.

Further information on both fellowships and assistantships can be obtained by contacting the Graduate Admissions Office.

If you have received an offer to enroll in our graduate program, we encourage you to visit our department and our campus to get a first-hand look at the outstanding opportunities here before deciding on a graduate school. Up to a certain limit, we will reimburse you for travel expenses associated with your visit. Please contact the Graduate Admissions Office for more details.