Financial Assistance and Funding

Graduate assistantships are awarded to students with excellent academic records and scholarly promise who are enrolled full-time. The awards ordinarily include a stipend, tuition scholarship, and health insurance coverage and are renewable. Depending on whether a PhD student’s degree program is located on one of the Lakeside Campuses or on the Heath Sciences Campus, PhD stipend amounts currently range from $28,000 for a 9-month stipend to $34,000 for a 12-month stipend.

Graduate Assistantships are divided into Teaching Assistantships (Guidelines) or Research Assistantships (Guidelines). Accordingly, a student who accepts an assistantship is required to provide teaching or research assistance, or — with approval of the Graduate School — to engage in other duties relevant to the discipline and program. Graduate students may not be assigned both research and teaching responsibilities in the same semester. Assistantship duties should provide students with educational and professional benefits while enhancing their pedagogical, research, and/or administrative skills. Assistantship duties cannot exceed 20 hours per week. Graduate assistants may not be assigned duties to support in the administration of the graduate program.

Fellowships are similar to assistantships in that they provide stipends, tuition scholarships, and health insurance; however, most fellowships do not require service on the part of the student. Recipients of fellowships administered through the university must adhere to the merit award policies in addition to the requirements of the fellowship.

The following policies apply to Graduate School students receiving awards. Awards may include teaching or research assistantships (internal, as well as funded by grants or outside agencies), non-service fellowships, and tuition awards. In addition, students are to comply with the academic and financial policies stated on the Graduate School website.

Absent exceptional circumstances, including those relating to public health, your appointment will begin on the first day of the Fall academic semester. To prepare for your assistantship for the semester, please reach out to your faculty advisor by August 15th for discussion. The stipend will be paid on the 15th of the each month (or earlier if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday) over the course of your 9-month or 12 month assistantship, starting in September.

If you are chosen to receive an assistantship or fellowship, you will be e-mailed a letter stating the terms of your award such as the length of the award period and the amount of stipend and tuition scholarship you should expect to receive. Awards do not cover University student fees (e.g., the University Services and Programs, CTA U-Pass, Late Registration, and Late Payment fees).

An accept/decline option will be included in your electronic award letter along with a link to The Graduate School merit award policies. Once you have read and agreed to the terms of your award and policies, you must select the option to accept the award on your electronic award letter. Please contact the Awards Coordinator if you are having technical difficulties accepting the award. Award letters are sent in June for the following academic year. In the case of multi-year assistantships, a student may not have any more than one outstanding incomplete grade by July 15, or the assistantship will not be renewed.

If you are receiving a stipend payment for the first time, you will need to fill out new award paperwork. The new award packet must be brought to The Graduate School along with the appropriate ID for the I-9. You will not receive payment until all of the paperwork is sufficiently filled out and submitted.

For PhD students receiving an Assistantship, stipend payments are made once a month or around the 15th of each month. For PhD students receiving a Fellowship, stipends payments are made once at the start of the Fall semester and once at the start of the Spring semester. If you do not receive your stipend payment on this date, please notify The Graduate School immediately. Stipends, tuition, and other awards, such as health and dental insurance, are taxable unless exempt under the Internal Revenue Code (www.irs.gov). Additional information may be found in IRS Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education.

You should consult a tax advisor regarding the taxability of these awards to you under the Internal Revenue Code. As discussed in the Graduate School’s terms and policies, Loyola is not required under Section 6041 to file a return of information (W-2 or 1099) to report a non-service fellowship. However, you may have an obligation to include the fellowship in your gross income. Please review IRS Topic Number 421. If your fellowship has a service requirement, you will receive a W-2 for your stipend.

Along with stipend payments, some assistantships come with tuition awards. Tuition awards pay the tuition for only those courses that count toward the fulfillment of degree requirements and are limited by the number of credit hours required for the student to complete the program's degree requirements (e.g., if a student is in a program that requires 60 credit hours of graduate coursework, once the student has completed the 60-credit-hour degree requirement, the tuition scholarship normally will not pay tuition for additional credit hours).

Students are responsible for paying tuition for any courses not eligible for payment by tuition awards. Recipients of tuition awards must register for classes no later than July 1 for the fall semester and January 1 for the spring semester.

Full-time awards come with health, dental, and vision insurance coverage for the student. Students may purchase supplemental insurance for a spouse/significant other or family, rates and additional information can be found on Bursar’s Office webpage.

To receive student health, dental, and vision insurance benefits, students must be registered for classes no later than July 1 for the Fall semester of the upcoming academic year. To accept the award and coverage, students must "Fast-Track" into the plan by logging into LOCUS and clicking on the "Student Health Insurance" link in the "Campus Finances" section. Fast-tracking into the insurance confirms accepted coverage, activates enrollment into the plan, and generates an insurance ID card.

If a student has health insurance coverage, he or she must waive out of student health insurance coverage. To waive out, students must log on to LOCUS and click on "Student Health Insurance" in the "Campus Finances" section by October 1 of the academic school year.

Click for the most up-to-date information regarding health insurance and dental insurance from the Office of the Bursar.

Stipend payments may be subject to Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax. There are, however, a number of exceptions to the FICA tax; for example, student employees who are enrolled and attending classes on at a least half time basis may be exempt. For more information about this, please read Loyola's Student Employment FICA Exemption Policy.

Information can also be found at www.irs.gov – Internal Revenue Service Website
IRS Pub 970: Tax Benefits for Education
IRS Pub 501: Exemptions, Standard Deduction and Filing Information

Students may obtain support from faculty members who receive funding from sources outside the university (e.g., research grants). The Graduate School normally matches funding from external sources with tuition awards.

The Graduate School also encourages students to apply for funding from sources outside the university. A list of external monies available to graduate students is available through our page of External Funding Sources.

The Office of Research Services also provides an extensive lists of searchable databases that contain funding opportunities.

The Graduate School encourages students to present their work at conferences throughout the United States and abroad. Students may apply for up to $750 (per academic year – with academic year ending on the final day of last summer term) in travel costs associated with presenting at a conference. Please note that travel awards are only available to current students whose programs are housed on the Lakeshore Campus and Water Tower Campus. Students enrolled in graduate programs at the Health Sciences campus should consult with the Graduate School at the Health Sciences Division or the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing for travel-related funding programs. Students whose conferences fall after their thesis/dissertation defense date (for programs with a thesis/dissertation requirement) or after their final course (for those programs without a thesis/dissertation) are not eligible to apply for travel funding.

Applying for Travel Awards

To be considered for funding, you must apply online BEFORE the conference takes place. To apply, log into GSPS, navigate to Award Forms > Internal Awards section, and click the "Add" button to begin.

You will be required to upload proof of acceptance to a conference (i.e. an email or letter of acceptance from the conference sponsor) and a preliminary budget in one single PDF. The Graduate School will reimburse travel and lodging costs, conference registration fees, poster printing costs, and food (adhering to the university's current per diem rates for food, and excluding alcohol).

You will receive confirmation to your LUC.edu email account to let you know if your application has been approved or rejected.

Receiving Reimbursement

In order to receive your reimbursement you must submit the following to The Graduate School at gradschool@luc.edu within three weeks of completing travel. 

A single PDF file which includes:

• A completed and signed Expense Reimbursement Form (instructions here)
• All receipts (in the order they appear on your reimbursement form)
• If applicable, missing receipt forms for any item over $25
• If applicable, currency conversions for any items listed in non-US dollar amounts
• Please note that you may be required to fill out an Electronic W9/W8 Form if you haven’t filled one out in the past academic year.

Incomplete or incorrect claims will cause a delay in reimbursement, so please make sure that you have filled out the forms completely, and that all necessary materials are included. Please note: according to Accounts Payable policy, expense reimbursements submitted more than 90 days following the date of the expense or the last date of travel will be considered taxable income.

Application Schedule

Applications for conference travel awards will be accepted on the following schedule:

After April 15 and until June 1, students who did not receive conference funding during the appropriate application period, which includes all conferences during the current academic year, may resubmit their application.

Only $750 in travel funding per student can be granted per academic year. However, if you are awarded a partial award to cover conference registration fees, you may apply for a second award for a different conference during a later round of travel awards. Funds are limited and will be awarded based on a distribution of students in different programs, so while we do encourage you to apply earlier in the application period if you can, the applications will remain open for the full period, and simply applying on the first day of the application period will not guarantee funding.

Graduate School students who are approved in advance for a Research Funding Request may receive reimbursement of up to $500 for expenses related to the research and preparation of a dissertation, thesis, or major research paper if applicable. The Graduate School will only grant one research funding award per student, and reimbursement for the funds must be claimed within the same academic year. To apply, please submit a Research Funding Request Form.  
 
Once the approved activities are completed, fill out an Expense Reimbursement Form and submit it to the Graduate School along with your original receipts. If your award included gift cards or incentives of some kind, please be aware that IRS rules require that you complete a disbursement log tracking what was distributed. Do not forget that the Graduate School cannot reimburse gift cards purchased with personal or departmental funds. You MUST submit a request for the Graduate School to purchase the gift cards for you. If subjects must remain anonymous, please indicate that on your reimbursement request and list the subject’s study number on your disbursement log.

Note: Research Funding is only available to students in historically underfunded disciplines and whose programs are housed on the Lakeside Campuses. Students interested in submitting a request to purchase a laboratory supply and/or material relevant to the student’s research should reach out to the Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

The Research Mentoring Program (RMP) is designed to partner graduate students who are working on their dissertation research with undergraduates who are interested in participating in research. The graduate student application deadline for this competitive summer fellowship is early December. Once the approved activities are finished, please submit original receipts and a completed reimbursement form to the Awards Coordinator in the Graduate School to receive reimbursement for expenditures.

This summer research program provides an opportunity for undergraduates to learn more about graduate studies and graduate-level research while supporting the mentorship training and research of a doctoral student. PhD mentors will be matched with an undergraduate research assistant to support their dissertation research, as well as receive a $2,000 summer stipend and a budget of up to $500 for research costs. Undergraduates will also receive a $1,500 stipend for serving as a research assistant.

Components of the program include:

• One-to-one mentoring of an undergraduate student for 6-8 weeks during the upcoming summer.
• Check-in meetings about progress and a final presentation meeting where you and your undergraduate assistant share your research accomplishments with the group.
• Joint poster or oral presentation at the Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium and/or Graduate Research Symposium in the spring following completion of your project.

Research Mentoring Program Application

Research Mentoring Project Abstracts

Testimony from a Previous Research Mentor

"As a PhD student in the English department, I found the summer research fellowship to be a valuable opportunity to practice mentorship with an aspiring scholar. My mentee helped me make significant progress in my research organization by identifying and collecting resources in places I wasn't looking. More importantly, her willingness to ask questions and challenge my ideas provided a new and productive voice from outside my immediate critical circles." – a 2020 research mentor

If you have any questions or problems, please contact Heather Sevener, Associate Dean of Student Academic Services. 

The Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) is committed to helping students finance graduate education. Our financial assistance professionals will work with you to create a package that makes the most of the available financial resources. As partners, we’ll work together to reach toward a common goal: making your Loyola education achievable and affordable.

All students receiving any type of award (assistantship, fellowship, or tuition) are encouraged to also file a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Loyola’s federal school code is 001710. Students without funding, as well as students anticipating supplementing their assistantship or fellowship support with loans, must file a FAFSA. There are no priority filing deadlines for graduate students, but students should submit the FAFSA as early as possible.

The Center for Experiential Learning seeks to serve students, faculty, staff and community partners of Loyola University Chicago as a resource for experiential learning opportunities and partnerships. The Center can assist graduate students with finding internships and community based federal work study.

Internships

Internships offer students an opportunity to put their knowledge to work in an applied setting while learning the dynamics of particular workplace settings. Many programs require or encourage internships as part of the degree process. While many of these experiences offer course credit rather than more direct financial remuneration, others offer students stipends to cover their time in the field. Students interested in internships should work with their programs as well as utilize the resources available in the Center for Experiential Learning.

Community-Based Federal Work-Study

Graduate students eligible for work-study as part of their financial aid packaged can work on campus or at a community-based service organization. Per Federal regulations, FWS monies fund 75% of student workers' salaries at community-based service sites; the agency must fund the other 25% of student workers' salaries. For further information visit the Center for Experiential Learning's website.

Many departments in the University hire graduate students on a part-time basis. Listings for these opportunities can be found on Handshake and in our weekly Graduate School Announcements newsletter. Please visit the Career Development Center website for more information about Handshake and other job search services the Center offers.

The Graduate School has created a listserv which features job, fellowship, and internship offerings for Graduate School students and alumni across a wide range of industries. Current Students: subscribe here (note: you must be connected to Loyola's GlobalProtect network in order to access this link.)

The Installment Plan (iPlan) is an optional arrangement to make educational payments more affordable by spreading payments over a selected number of monthly installments instead of making one payment each semester. Loyola's in-house iPlan is available through LOCUS (Loyola's Online Connection to University Services), to help you and your family customize your budget for the upcoming academic year.

Loyola Installment Plan benefits include:

• Additional monthly installment options
• Clear, step-by-step budgeting process
• Streamlined account information

Loyola's iPlan is available in a variety of monthly options. Click here for more information on The Installment Plan (iPlan).

Students can use the charge authorization form to add Rambler Bucks to your Campus Card for buying textbooks at the Follett Campus Bookstore. You may add funds to your card in increments of $100 to $800 without pre-paying. The charge will be added to your student account and must be paid in full along with all other tuition and fees.

Students can only submit one form per term, and must comply with the assigned deadline for each term. If a student is unsure of the total cost of books, supplies and other expected purchases, the Card Office suggests requesting a greater amount on the Charge Authorization Form. Any funds not used in the purchase of books, supplies, etc. at the bookstore are non-refundable, but can be used at any location Rambler Bucks are accepted, as listed. Graduate Students: If you are a quarter semester student, please contact the Card Office for more information.

If you have questions, please contact the Campus Card Office at campuscard@luc.edu.

Students should also familiarize themselves with the Financial Aid Office's statement on student rights and responsibilities.