Degrees and Funding

The department offers a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Master of Science (MS) in Biostatistics. The MS degree has a two-year curriculum arc. The PhD degree has a two and a half-year curriculum arc and a research arc that typically lasts three years. The expected time to completion for a PhD is about five years.

Each year, the program recruits 4 PhD students and 4 MS students for fall admission. All PhD admission offers comes with full funding, which includes a 12-month stipend, a full tuition waiver, and student health insurance¹. The funding mechanism is either a fellowship, research assistantship, or training grant support. All PhD candidates (i.e., PhD students who have passed their oral qualifying exam) are supported by research assistantships. Continuation of funding is dependent upon the student making good academic progress in the program (as determined by their dissertation committee, their advisor, and the director of graduate studies) and satisfactory performance on their research assistantship. When these conditions are met, funding typically lasts for at least five years.

All students admitted to the Master’s program are offered an 80% tuition waiver. Continuation of waiver is dependent upon the student making good academic progress in the program (as determined by their academic performance, their advisor, and director of graduate studies).

¹University Tuition Scholarships are service-free awards that pay all or part of tuition costs. The following graduate awards are normally supplemented by a full University Tuition Scholarship, which usually includes student health insurance coverage: University Fellowships, Graduate Teaching Assistantships, Graduate Research Assistantships, Traineeships, and Teacher Training Awards.