Costs & Financial Aid
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Graduate students in FER programs can often defray the cost of their education by taking advantage of a number of assistantship and other financial aid programs and by establishing residency in North Carolina. In addition, there are partial teaching assistantships available plus paid research or other employment options. Fellowships and research assistantships pay tuition, health insurance and a stipend.
Research Assistantships
FER offers a number of assistantships to graduate students each year. Awards are based primarily on merit, although a student's background and research interests are also considered for specific research stipends. In general, students who receive research assistantships have exceptionally high GRE scores (75th percentile and above) on the verbal, quantitative and analytical sections, as well as GPA's of at least 3.5 on a 4 point scale. They also usually offer outstanding letters of recommendations from qualified associates and present a well-written statement of purpose.
A majority of the assistantships are funded through competitive grants and contracts awarded to individual professors to carry out specific research projects — meaning they are primarily granted to graduate students pursuing research-intensive thesis degrees such as a Master of Science or PhD. Occasionally, funding may also be granted to students seeking non-thesis Masters degrees.
The Department's basic stipend rate for an assistantship is currently $13,000 per year at the Masters level and $15,000 per year for PhD students. In return for this funding, an assistantship requires a half-time commitment over twelve months to work on a research project. Often, the project furnishes material for the thesis or dissertation.
International students are welcome to apply for assistantships, but support in these cases usually comes from home country sources or an international development agency. See Admitting International Students in the Graduate School Handbook for more information.
Applying for A Research Assistantship
Applying for an assistantship is easy: simply check boxes at the top of the standard admissions form to request consideration for financial assistance. No additional forms are needed, since the documents submitted with the application are adequate for assessing merit. FER will process applications up to the deadlines stated in the Graduate School instructions, but your chances for getting an assistantship are increased if the application is received before we start to consider assistantship awards. This means it is best to get your complete application in by January 31 for admission in the fall semester and September 30 for admission in the spring semester.
If you seeking funding from individual faculty members or research programs within FER, similar criteria for admission and funding are applied but may vary. Contacting the appropriate FER Faculty member to discuss assistantship opportunities is recommended.
On-Going Assistantship Opportunities
The following Research Assistantships are currently being awarded to graduate students in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Sciences:
Departmental Research Assistantships: Each fall, we offer 2-6 Research Assistantships to incoming graduate students. These provide two years funding to masters students and three years funding to PhD students. Students receiving departmental RAs are free to choose any advisor in the department. These are merit-based and available to all U.S. and international applicants in any curriculum. All applicants requesting financial aid will be considered for these assistantships.
Hofmann Forest Graduate Scholarships: awarded each year to up to four doctoral students studying in the various disciplines of forestry. In general, Hofmann Scholars receive a stipend of $17,000 per year plus tuition, student fees and health insurance. In addition, up to $1,000 per year per Fellow is available for professional development (i.e., meetings, workshops, travel, research expenses, etc.). All students applying for admission to the PhD program in Forestry will be considered for a Hoffman Scholarship. Hofmann Scholars are expected to do one teaching assistantship each year, for an additional $2,000. All Hofmann Scholars also will need to earn a Graduate Research Certificate.
Gunnar and Lilian Nicholson Graduate Fellowships: awarded to Swedish graduate foresters studying forest genetics and forest management at N.C. State. Successful applicants receive funding for a period of four years to earn a Ph.D. degree. This award includes an $24,000 annual stipend plus all tuition, student fees, and health insurance. Students are also granted one round-trip airfare per year for travel to Sweden for purposes of promoting the Nicholson exchange program.
Camcore Stipends: Camcore offers occasional partial stipends for graduate studies at NC State. Students representing Camcore companies are given first priority in receiving these stipends to conduct research internationally, but occasionally stipends are made available to individuals not associated with the Cooperative. Graduate studies with Camcore emphasize improving our knowledge about tropical and subtropical forest species.
Christmas Tree Genetics Awards: Occasional assistantships (MS or PhD) are available to work with Christmas tree breeding, propagation or pest resistance through the Christmas Tree Genetics Program.
Environmental Sustainability Assistantship: open to any FER student, with preference given to a doctoral student with strong interest in promoting sustainable natural resource educational programs. This award was created to assist the College of Natural Resources in fulfilling a mandate to enhance the sustainability of NC State’s campus community. The assistantship pays a competitive stipend and covers all tuition and fees.
Forest Nutrition Cooperative Assistantships: for outstanding individuals pursuing an MS or PhD degree with the Forest Nutrition Cooperative, one of the world's leading forest research and education programs. Awards are typically available in specific areas of research. Please contact Lee Allen at lee_allen@ncsu.edu or 919-513-4043) for more information.
Tree Improvement Assistantships: available to MS or PhD degree candidates working with the Cooperative Tree Improvement Program in various areas of research, including genetic variation studies; modeling and development of breeding strategies; testing and selection; seed orchard management; and the use of clonal propagation in breeding and forest plantation establishment.
Research-Specific Opportunities
Research Assistantships are often awarded to graduate students in FER interested in working on specific current research projects. For questions about specific research opportunities and available funding, please contact FER Faculty members about their individual projects.
Ecosystem Ecology: assistantship for PhD candidate in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University to work on carbon-water-nitrogen cycle interactions in coastal plain forested wetlands of the Southeast U.S. Soils of these ecosystems hold vast amounts of carbon that is vulnerable to decomposition in the conditions of climatic variability and sea-level rise. The successful applicant will use eddy covariance, stable isotope, chamber gas exchange, biometric and biochemical methods to establish the mechanistic relationships between nitrogen availability and carbon loss or sequestration. Candidates with MS degree in plant ecophysiology, ecology or ecosystem modeling are preferred, but exceptional candidates with BS degree and relevant research experience will also be considered. For additional information, please contact John King (john_king@ncsu.edu) or Asko Noormets (anoorme@ncsu.edu).
The Graduate Student Support Plan
Full-time graduate students appointed to an assistantship of at least $8,000 per year are also placed into the Graduate Student Support Plan. This means that all tuition and health insurance premiums are paid on behalf of the student (out-of-state tuition is paid only for the first year of study for those students eligible to apply for NC residency: please see below for details).
Additional financial aid for graduate students in FER may be available through University Financial Aid, which can help fill in the gaps between educational expenses and available assets.
Tuition and Fees
The amount that graduate students pay for tuition and fees depends on course load and residency status. These rates are subject to increase each year by the state legislature and current rates are found at the University Cashiers website.
Obtaining NC Residency
NC State is a public land grant institution that receives money each year from the State of North Carolina. In return for this support, the University is required to provide affordable education for NC residents and to maintain extension and other outreach programs that benefit the people and communities of North Carolina.
Our structure means that there is a significant difference in the tuition required of residents vs. non-residents. While you do not have to be a resident of North Carolina to apply to FER’s graduate programs, there is a strong financial incentive to establishing state residency.
In general, in-state tuition is granted 12 months after moving to NC, if residency is granted. This is important not only for students paying their tuition on their own, but also because graduate students receiving assistantships greater than $8,000 per year who are eligible to become North Carolina residents will only receive assistance based on out-of-state tuition rates for the first year of their programs. If these students do not obtain residency in North Carolina, they must pay the out-of-state portion of their tuition on their own after the first year.
For these reasons, all eligible students are encouraged to become residents of North Carolina as soon possible, following these procedures:
- All United States citizens and resident aliens who have lived in the state for at least 12 months are eligible to become residents of North Carolina.
- You must prove that you have lived in the state for at least one year prior to obtaining NC residency — meaning it is important that you begin documenting your residency here shortly after you arrive.
For more information, please visit The Graduate School website and review how to establish North Carolina residency.
