Neea Rusch

Doctoral Student Funding Survival Guide

This pages lists some resources and tips for finding additional funding, if you are an unfunded doctoral student at Augusta University (my *deepest* condolences).

This information is based on my experience. It was accurate around 2021-2025 and hopefully remains relevant thereafter. I am sharing this in case it helps someone else.

Travel funds are faster to obtain; a decision takes some weeks. For the rest, preparing applications is exhaustive and can take months (plan accordingly).

⭐ = this worked for me.

At Augusta University

These resources are generally applicable, and (mostly) independent of research topic, graduate program, etc.

  • ⭐ The Graduate School Travel Funds
    The funds are available for travel involving research presentation or professional development. The amount is capped at $1000/academic year.

  • ⭐ GSGA Travel/Journal Funding ️
    Funding to cover portions of conference travel/attendance; or journal publication costs, by reimbursement. These policies and amounts change regularly. The funds come from student fees, which are limited. Available for AU graduate students; need not be enrolled.

  • GrantSelect1
    Funding database for looking for external fellowships, awards, etc. Use filters to exclude entries that are not applicable for whatever reason (year of study, immigration status, etc.). Available to all students with AU login credentials.

  • InfoEd Sponsored Program Information Network (SPIN)1
    A funding database that is accessible to AU employees, including students with an employee ID. Not available for students without a GRA/GTA contract.

  • ⭐ Scholarship Universe23
    A database of various scholarships. Some scholarships are annual and internal. Others are offered throughout the year to everyone who meets the eligibility criteria.

Outside Augusta University

These are specific to computer science, and mostly to programming language and formal methods.4 These funds are disbursed via reimbursement.

IMPORTANT! Sign up to TYPES Announce Mailing List. Sometimes you will see messages about events with funding support.

  • ⭐ Look for travel grants or student scholarships on a conference website.
    You will want to prioritize top conferences, as these have more sponsors who can support student travel (my awards page contains many examples).

  • SIGPLAN Professional Activities Committee (PAC)
    Travel funding for cases where attendance is otherwise not possible. The student must be participating in a SIGPLAN sponsored event and be a member of ACM, and the advisor must bes a member of SIGPLAN.

  • ⭐ Look for Student Volunteer option to offset conference attendance costs.
    Volunteering has many benefits, including social, but they depend on the conference.

Footnotes

  1. For help contact AU Sponsored Programs Administration. ↩ ↩2

  2. For assistance with scholarships, contact the Office of Student Financial Aid. ↩

  3. Generally everything in the database is competitive, e.g., in 2025 about 3000 students applied for internal scholarships. ↩

  4. If your research topic is something else, maybe some nice person in your topic has written a similar guide. ↩

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