Funding and Financial Support

The School offers graduate research assistantships (GRAs) for all accepted full-time PhD students. The GRA is a work package that pairs a student with a SSW faculty member to support their research. Full-time students are eligible for full-time (20-hour) assistantships which provide a stipend of $26,750 (10-month) or $32,105 (12-month), plus tuition remission for the fall and spring semesters, and health insurance. All full-time students who are making adequate progress toward their degree are eligible for a GRA through graduation.

GRAs are offered to full-time students only. Part-time students are offered awards that cover tuition remission; they do not receive a stipend or health insurance because they are not completing a GRA.

Yes. We are able to provide GRA work packages and funding until graduation for any student making adequate progress toward their degree.

As a GRA, you will be assigned to work with a faculty member to support their research. Tasks will vary depending on the project but may include conducting literature reviews, developing data collection tools, interviewing participants or completing focus groups, cleaning and analyzing data, writing up reports and manuscripts, and attending meetings with stakeholders. As a GRA, you are expected to work 20 hours/week. Your schedule and work location will vary depending on the project needs.

A GRA is an opportunity to apply the concepts you are learning in your courses to an actual research project. You will learn first-hand the stages of a research project and what tasks are required at each stage. Your faculty mentor is also a resource for you to ask questions about a concept presented in a course and how it applies to your GRA project. Your faculty mentor can also advise you on the development of your research goals and your career path.

Although not guaranteed, your GRA assignment is often substantively related to your own research interests. At other times, your GRA assignment may be a methodological match but be focused on a research topic different than your focus.

We support professional development opportunities for students by offering a number of travel fellowships that off-set the costs of conference registration and travel. Priority is given to students who are presenting a paper or poster.

PhD Candidates can apply for one of several internal dissertation grants that can be used to cover costs related to participant incentives, transcription, statistical software, training, and external consultation. We also encourage and support students to identify and pursue opportunities for external funding.

All full-time students are required to have health insurance. An excellent insurance policy that provides wide coverage, including obstetrical care, is available through the university. For detailed information about health insurance, please visit www.umaryland.edu/health Full-time students with a GRA receive student health insurance as part of the GRA package.

The Donna Harrington Fellowship Award recognizes the outstanding leadership and mentorship of Donna Harrington. This award supports the development of additional excellence among UMSSW PhD students.

This fellowship was designed to honor Dr. Harrington’s commitment to social work scholarship. This award will benefit future generations of UMSSW PhD students while keeping alive Donna Harrington’s name and extraordinary accomplishments. 

Application Due: April 1
Amount: Up to $2,000
Who is Eligible: Current UMSSW PhD students (Pre-candidacy)

Current students can find more guidance about applying on Blackboard/PhD Student News. 

We are able to offer a limited number of internal grant awards from the University of Maryland Social Work PhD Program.

Application Due: June June 1 or October 1 
Amount: Up to $4,000 
Who is Eligible: PhD Candidate  

Current students can find more guidance about applying on Blackboard/PhD Student News. 

Nomination Form

The Donna Harrington Exemplary Faculty Mentor Award is designed to honor Donna’s legacy as an outstanding mentor to PhD students and to recognize a faculty member each year who follows in her footsteps by providing exceptional support and guidance to a PhD student.  

Donna Harrington was a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Social Work from 1995-2018. From 2007 until her too early passing in 2018, she served as the PhD Program Director and held the title of Associate Dean for Doctoral and Post-Doctoral Education.  

Donna was an incredible methodologist, researcher, and mentor, who displayed compassion, and curiosity, and was intentionally collaborative in her work. Her advice and expertise were often sought by the newest of students to the most accomplished social scientists.   

Nominations from PhD alumni and current PhD students will be solicited each spring. Nominees must be current SSW faculty and (Associate or Regular) members of the UMB Graduate Faculty. The selected faculty recipient will be announced at SSW Convocation each spring. 

Nomination Form