Funding Opportunities and Resources
All Students
Federal Financial Aid
You may complete the FAFSA application as soon as it becomes available for the year you wish to enter. You are not required to have an admission decision before completing this application. The priority deadline is March 1 of the year you wish to enroll.
UNC-Chapel Hill Financial Aid
Visit the website of the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid for more information.
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Scholarships
First-year pharmacy students are eligible to apply for $100,000 in funding. The application is available as part of UNC’s supplemental application. We offer nearly $900,000 in competitive scholarships, awards, and grants each year after the first year
Our Ph.D. students receive full financial support contingent upon their satisfactory progression in their training program, which is typically completed within five years. We work to offer all graduate students equal financial support that is competitive with other graduate programs.
Graduate students in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are supported by fellowships and research assistantships that provide an annual stipend of $30,000 plus tuition, fees, and health insurance. Admission offers are made on a competitive basis with consideration given to the applicant’s academic record, Graduate Record Examination scores, and research experience.
Deadline: All applications for admission to the Ph.D. program must be received by February 9. However, we strongly recommend applying by mid-December so that applicants can be nominated for the prestigious University recruitment fellowships and assistantships awarded by the Graduate School.
Qualified applicants can be nominated by the divisional training program that they are applying to for several types of competitive University recruitment fellowships and assistantships from the Graduate School. These awards also provide full stipend, tuition, fees, and health insurance.
Applicants who are nominated for a University recruitment award are guaranteed invitation to the School’s Recruitment Weekend event, which is held during the last weekend in January.
Available awards include:
- Royster Society of Fellows
- University Merit Assistantships
- North Carolina Excellence Fellowship
- North Carolina Native American Incentive Grants
For a complete list of funding opportunities, visit the UNC Graduate School Funding Page.
Deadline: To be considered for a University recruitment award, applications must be received by December 13. The University recruitment awards are announced in early March.
For Applicants
For applicants who will hold a Pharm.D. by the time they begin graduate training, the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education (AFPE) offers several fellowship awards to encourage outstanding pharmacy students to pursue the PhD in the pharmaceutical sciences in a college of pharmacy graduate program:
-
Phi Lambda Sigma AFPE First Year Graduate School Fellowship
-
Rho Chi AFPE First Year Graduate School Fellowship
-
Kappa Epsilon AFPE First Year Graduate School Fellowship (The Nellie Wakeman Fellowship)
For Current Students
-
AFPE Predoctoral Fellowship:
AFPE predoctoral fellows receive a stipend of $10,000 per year that may be used for any purpose jointly decided by the awardee and college that will enable the student to make progress in their pursuit of a Ph.D. The term of the fellowship is September 1 to August 31 of the following year. For full details of the AFPE fellowship predoctoral agreement view the downloadable [PDF]. All eligible students are expected to pursue AFPE funding to help support the cost of their training.
To be eligible, students must:
- Major in one of the following disciplines: Clinical Pharmaceutical Science, Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacoeconomics & Health Outcomes Research, Pharmacognosy, Pharmacokinetics/Metabolism, Pharmacology/Toxicology, Pharmacotherapy & Experimental Therapeutics, or Social & Administrative Science.
- Have completed three semesters of graduate study and anticipate that they have no more than three and a half years remaining to obtain the Ph.D. in progress.
- Be a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident
The School recommends that AFPE funds be allocated in the following way:
- $7,500 towards the student’s stipend
- $2,500 towards non-stipend* expenditures for professional development (i.e. supplies for laboratory rotations, laptop computer, books and other materials, travel, membership fees, etc.)
To learn more about these AFPE fellowships and to apply, visit http://afpepharm.org/index.php/contact/grants-scholarships-and-awards/.
Additional external fellowship opportunities include:
- UNC Graduate Funding Information Center
- How to Win a Graduate Fellowship, by Michael Kiparsky
- ScienceCareersFunding: funding information geared specifical for graduate and undergraduate students, affiliated with Science‘s Next Wave.
- Community of Science: funding searches and email notification service, networking, online CV function
- NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant offers research funds for conducting dissertation research.