Funding, Professional Development Resources
All admitted Ph.D. students receive five full years of funding (with the possibility of a sixth), including tuition, health insurance, and a generous stipend. This page contains information about additional sources of funding, from Yale or external sources, as well as general information about language training and exchange programs.
Sources of Funding
Yale University offers different sources of funding to support graduate students in their research, including the following:
- ISPS Graduate Policy Fellowships for research on U.S. domestic policy.
- Leitner Program’s Research Grant in Political Economy.
- MacMillan Center’s Research Fellowship for international and area studies-related activities.
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SPIN database - A database of Sponsored Funding Opportunities
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Grants.gov - For Federal Grant Opportunities.
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InfoReady Review - For Funding Opportunities Limiting the Number of Applications per Institution.
A full list of sources of funding available at Yale is available here.
Conference Travel Support
Graduate students are eligible to apply for conference travel funds to either the MacMillan Center International Conference Travel Grants, if presenting research on an international topic, or, if presenting research on a non-international topic, graduate students should apply to the Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fellowship. There are specific deadlines and procedures for these grants; please pay close attention to them.
The Graduate School Health Preparation for Travel Fund will reimburse the cost of inoculations at Yale University Health Services that are required for travel outside the United States for dissertation research.
There are also numerous outside sources of support for dissertation research, including the National Science Foundation (here and here), the United States Institute of Peace, and the Social Science Research Council. Other fellowships include:
- The Stanley I. Bach fellowship for legislative studies.
- The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
- Smith Richardson Foundation World Politics & Statecraft Fellowship
Information on how to apply to external fellowships is available here. For information on how external fellowships affect university funding, see here. Note that in many cases, external grants require enrollment or candidacy verification, which is provided by the University Registrar’s office, and can take several days. For more information on this process, see here.
Summer Research and Language Training Support
The university and university-affiliated clubs offer funding to support summer research, including the following:
- John F. Enders Fellowship and Research Grant, preferably for students needing to travel to complete field research (subject to Yale’s travel policies).
- Yale Club of Philadelphia Graduate Research Fellowship, for students with a personal, academic or research-related connection with the Philadelphia area.
- Yale Club of San Francisco Graduate Research Fellowship, for research to be performed in the San Francisco Bay area.
These applications are typically due on April 1. More information can be found in the Student Grants Database.
Yale also has several sources of funding for summer language training. Two key resources are the programs overseen by the MacMillan Center and the Graduate School’s Summer Language Institute Fellowships.
(Note that there are also limited opportunities for Graduate School funding for participation in non-Language summer programs through the Summer Program Tuition Fellowships).
Exchange Programs
Graduate students in Political Science may take advantage of the following exchange programs:
- Exchange Scholar Programs.
- The IvyPlus Exchange program with any of ten participating IvyPlus Institutions.
- The Jewish Theological Seminary of American (JTSA) Exchange Scholar Program.
- Fox Fellowship program with 20 of the world’s leading universities.
- International Exchange programs, with Sciences Po and Nuffield College, Oxford.