The PhD program provides a financial fellowship to qualified doctoral students that includes tuition, a living stipend, health fee coverage, and opportunities to hold research and/or course assistantships.
All incoming doctoral students are provided with financial aid for five years, provided they maintain satisfactory academic progress and meet program milestones. The fellowship stipend and/or research or teaching assistantship for 2020–21 is $45,850.
Tuition & Expenses
Living expenses for Stanford GSB depend on a number of factors, such as whether you are married, have children, or own a car, and how you spend your leisure time. For more information on the estimated tuition and living expenses, please see the Stanford Office of Graduate Admissions’ Estimated Expense Budget.
Research & Course Assistantships
Research and course assistantships are typically included as part of a student’s funding from Stanford.
Academically, a research assistantship serves as an apprenticeship in research that is often the basis for the dissertation research that follows. A teaching assistantship provides experience with the different aspects of the teaching process: course preparation, presentation skills, grading, and evaluation. The standard terms of the assistantship depend on the student’s tenure in the program.
Supplemental Income
There are various means of increasing one’s income beyond the granted Stanford GSB financial support package. One method is incidental grading and tutoring, informally known as hourly work. Foreign students, by the terms of their visas, cannot work more than 20 hours per week while school is in session. U.S. citizens cannot work more than 28 hours per week.
Professional Development Grants
The PhD program encourages students to attend and present research at professional conferences. The program provides funding to cover travel expenses, publication submission fees, and professional organization membership fees. Professional conferences enable students to:
- Gain exposure to types of research that we do not do here at Stanford
- Discuss the state of research in different areas
- Discuss and get feedback on one’s own work
- Meet leading faculty and PhD students from other schools
Outside Financial Support
PhD students at Stanford GSB have achieved the distinction of receiving fellowship support from a wide array of scholarship foundations. Among the awards they commonly win are fellowships granted by:
- National Science Foundation
- State Farm Companies Foundation
- Deloitte Foundation
- KPMG Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Outside Employment
Our PhD program is a full-time program. Students should not plan to rely on part-time work to defray any of their expenses.
Because of the rigorous requirements of the PhD program and its research orientation, the program strongly discourages any outside employment other than research with the faculty and incidental grading and/or tutoring positions.
