Travel Grants for Graduate Students – We understand that graduate students are often required to make some journeys to attend some events that are related to their research or thesis. Sometimes, the student can attend the events such as seminar, workshops or programs in their own city. However, it is also pretty common that they have to travel to outer states or even travel abroad to attend these events.
Traveling has never been cheap, and it is pretty common that graduate students are low on budget. Therefore, searching for travel grant opportunities for graduate students might be a good idea. Today we're going to discuss about the sources where you can find such financial aid.
Probably the most widely available source of education grant; there are many universities that provide a small grant program that accommodate their graduate students, allowing them to make some travels to the events that are related to their thesis. Needless to say, the program is only available for that particular university's students. Universities such as MIT, Cornell, UCSC, Berkeley, etc have their own respective program that can help their grad students visiting conference, seminar, workshops, etc. Typically, the university provides the grant award for some selected students because the funding is limited. The money received varies between universities, but usually they range between $500 to $2,000.
The name of the program offered by these private and state universities may different from one another. Some might call it travel grant, while other includes it in their research grant program. Typically, the university expects that you'll submit the application 14 days before your departure.
We highly suggest you to visit your university's financial aid office to ask more information about the eligibility and the selection process of the grant.
Another good source of this type of grant is educational associations. It is common that there's an association for each discipline of study. For example, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) provide grants for traveling abroad that allow students from mathematical-related studies to attend joint mathematical meetings or their AMS sectional meetings. The American Studies Association also provides the graduate students with grants that can be used for traveling expenses called the Annette K. Baxter travel grant program. Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies (ASEES)also provide a program called the Davis Graduate Student Travel Grant, which provides 18 grant awards annually, each amounts up to $500.
Typically, you have to be a member of those associations. There may be some additional requirements and the grant is not awarded to everyone. There's a selection process and you may have to write a paper to qualify. Most associations decide that the grant can only be assigned once. If you have previously received the grant, then you are not eligible anymore.
While both sources above are available for short trips, there are other programs that can provide you with financial aid for longer trips for studies abroad. Some good examples are the Marshall Scholarships, Rhodes Scholarships, Fulbright and Watson Fellowship. These four are the major source of money for students looking for education abroad. There are also some programs that are based on the study you will be taking. But since we are focusing on short trips, we will discuss those graduate students travel grants in another post.