I know that most schools give students funds for PhD. Does this apply to international students?
At most colleges internationals are funded for doctoral studies.
eons ago, when I was a PhD student, science-based international PhD candidates always had scholarships (before they started working for their PhD advisors) or stipends (through grant money and/or TA-ship). But humanity-based phd candidates had far less to no scholarship. I think it is still the case now.
^Good humanities PhD programs still fund most or all of their students, international or not. The amount of the stipend is, on average, a lot lower, but there usually is funding.
I was once told (STEM) that you should not apply for any school that does not offer its PhD students full funding regardless of international status; all PhD students in a field are paid the same. However, funding varies greatly depending on the field.
yes i am an economics student and also international so might not be as lucky as domestic STEM kids haha
Of course, yes, funding does vary by department by school. But your advice was still spot on: no one, I mean no one, should attend a PhD program that is not fully funded.
Yes, and that’s true across every field. You shouldn’t even get a humanities doctoral degree without funding (it’s probably more imperative than STEM, since the chances of finding a job are lower and the overall pay is lower as well).
Economics is one of those fields that fully funds its students, and it’s also a field in which the demand matches or slightly exceeds the supply. So you should be able to get full funding for a PhD in that field. Your international student status theoretically doesn’t matter. In practice, there are some fellowships and types of funding (mostly NSF) that only domestic students can get, but usually the university shuffles their funding types around to cover everyone that they actually want in the program. So this may have a small impact, but if you are an outstanding candidate it should be just that: small.
All of our PhD students are guaranteed a stipend. However, we prioritize domestic applicants and accept a lower percentage of international applicants (who are generally not eligible for training grant funding).