<p>Schools give funding for phds because what your doing your phd in is in demand. Is your history phd in demand? Is there a specialization that is needed? Or a hot topic issue? For example some schools fund for a bio defense phd, while others do not. Bio defense, even from the policy stand point, on some school sites, is a mostly political science degree; usually not funded, but this one is. You need to see if your school degree your going for is going to be in demand and needed.</p>
<p>Yes, most “top” schools offer funding for their PhD programs, though the particular details (source, length, teaching requirement, etc.) will likely vary. You should be able to find this information on each program’s website.</p>
<p>Top schools in nearly every social science discipline fund the vast majority, if not all, of the people they admit into PhD programs. I’m not a historian, but my sense is that this applies to history PhD programs. Certainly history grad students are funded at the institutions where I have spent time, which include several of those on the list linked by the OP.</p>
<p>Humanity/social science doctoral students are funded differently from science/engineering students. Most will be in the form of teaching assistantships and fellowships from institutional funds, instead of research assistantships from external grants/contracts. </p>
<p>Typically, top programs at well-endowed institutions will support more of their students for longer periods of time, asking for less work. Other programs would expect you to “earn” the support through TAing.</p>
<p>For example, the average stipend for a history teaching assistant at Duke University is $11,000 per academic year, and a research assistant $18,000 per academic year.</p>
<p>My statement was referring to programs in the top 10-15 in their fields. Typical stipend (fellowship or TAship) is in the range of 20-30K/year these days.</p>