Financial Considerations
How do I Obtain Financial Support?
Research assistantships are awarded by professors with research money. Most students are supported by research assistantships from their major professors. Since professors often wish to observe a student in class before awarding a research assistantship, it is more difficult to obtain one before enrolling in classes at the University of Arkansas than it is after you have started taking classes at the University of Arkansas.
When your application for admission is sent to the Electrical Engineering Department by International Admissions, your application will be circulated among the Electrical Engineering faculty to see if any faculty are willing to commit to provide you with financial support before interacting with you in person.
You may also directly email faculty members who are doing research in the topic area you are most interested in. The faculty doing research in each specialty area are listed on the specialty area pages of this web site. A summary of the research being done by each faculty member can also be found in the faculty directory. Please do not spam all of our faculty. Only contact the ones doing research in your topic area.
If a faculty member decides to offer you support, he or she will email you informing you of the offer. Almost all students succeed in finding funding by the end of their first semester, but this is not guaranteed.
It is a long established policy that teaching assistantships may be awarded only after a student has completed a minimum of one semester as a full-time student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. Thus, a prospective student may apply during the first semester of residence for a teaching assistantship the following semester. However, the Electrical Engineering Department presently has 10 teaching assistantship positions and approximately 80 graduate students. Therefore it is difficult to obtain a teaching assistantship, and you should plan for other means of support.
Students sometimes earn supplemental income using the Work Study program documented on the Financial Aid web site. As with teaching assistantships, however, this is rare and should not be counted on for support.
Fellowships
The following fellowships are available to outstanding doctoral students.
- Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship (DDF) - The Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship pays a student $20,000.00 on top of the usual graduate assistant pay. If the usual graduate assistant salary is $12,000.00/year + tuition (which is approximately right), then a student with the DDF would be paid $32,000.00/year + tuition. A recipient of the DDF must have a GPA of at least 3.85/4.0 on his or her previous degree. A recipient who already has an M.S. must have a GPA of 3.85 on the M.S. and 3.65 on the B.S. A GRE V/Q score of at least 1300 and GRE writing score of 5.5 are also required. A student's major professor applies for the DDF for him. A student cannot apply for the DDF without first having a major professor.
- Doctoral Academy Fellowship (DAF) - The Doctoral Academy Fellowship pays a student $10,000.00 on top of the usual graduate assistant pay. If the usual graduate assistant salary is $12,000.00/year + tuition (which is approximately right), then a student with the DAF would be paid $22,000.00/year + tuition. A recipient of the DAF must have a GPA of at least 3.65/4.0 on his or her previous degree. A recipient who already has an M.S. must have a GPA of 3.65 on the M.S. and 3.5 on the B.S. A GRE V/Q score of at least 1200 and GRE writing score of 5.0 are also required. A student's major professor applies for the DAF for him. A student cannot apply for the DAF without first having a major professor.
Cost of Attending
The table below shows the estimated cost of attending graduate school at the University of Arkansas for the first year. For more detailed information, see the estimated expense cost sheet.
| Time Period | Tuition & Fees | Living Expenses |
| Expenses for 9 Months | $13,753.00 | $8,977.00 |
| Summer Expenses | $4,324.00 | $4,489.00 |
| Expenses for 12 Months | $18,077.00 | $13,466.00 |
