Department of Biological Sciences

Graduate Teaching Assistantships and University Fellowships

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Program support for Biological Sciences MSc students is available in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs).  

  • GTAs are available only to thesis option students.
  • GTAs are awarded on a competitive basis.  
  • GTAs include a tuition waiver and stipend.
    • The current stipend is ~ $7,000 per semester.  
  • To ensure consideration for a GTA beginning in the fall semester of any academic year, applications should be complete by the end of March of the preceding spring semester.
  • GTAs sometimes are available for students beginning in the spring semester. To ensure consideration for a GTA beginning in the spring semester, applications should be complete by the end of October of the preceding fall semester.
  • International students who are awarded a GTA must take and pass the Oral Proficiency Test (OPT) before being allowed to teach.

University Fellowships

In addition to GTAs, full time thesis option students are eligible for nomination to:

  • The Graduate Council Scholars Program, and
  • The Wright Fellowship Program

The goal of the Graduate Council Scholars Program recognizes outstanding new graduate students at Wright State. The goal of the Wright Fellowship Program is to attract high quality underrepresented minority graduate students to Wright State. The Biological Science MSc program may nominate one applicant per year to each of these programs. Graduate Council Scholars and Wright Fellows then are selected from among the nominees received from all Wright State graduate programs. Graduate Council Scholars and Wright Fellows both are awarded a one-year (fall-spring-summer) tuition waiver and a one-year stipend of $13,000. They also are guaranteed a second year of support from their academic program. In Biological Sciences, this would be in the form of a GTA.

The Biological Sciences graduate committee selects nominees for these programs in January/February of each year. To ensure full consideration, prospective applicants interested in the Graduate Council Scholars and Wright Fellowship Programs should contact the Biological Sciences MSc Program coordinator during the preceding fall semester