Over 95% of the graduate students in DNS receive some form of financial support for their graduate studies. Nutritional Sciences graduate students commonly are supported by one or more of the sources of funding listed below during their graduate career. Tuition is waived for students who receive qualifying scholarships, fellowships and assistantships.

Research Assistantships

Research Assistantships (RA) provided by the research grants of a DNS student’s faculty advisor provide the primary source of funding for nutritional sciences graduate students. These funds usually are directly tied to the student's research project; however, some students may receive payment for assisting with research grants that are not a direct component of their dissertation research.

Teaching Assistantships

Nutritional Sciences graduate students are strongly encouraged to obtain teaching experience during their graduate career. While the Division does not currently offer any teaching assistantships (TA), many other TA opportunities are available through our participating departments (e.g. Animal Sciences, Crop Sciences, and Food Science and Human Nutrition) or in other departments on campus (e.g. Chemistry, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, Cell and Developmental Biology).

• View our list of courses DNS students most frequently TA.

Fellowships and Scholarships

The Division of Nutritional Sciences offers outstanding fellowship opportunities to qualified candidates. Each year we offer a number of Jonathan Baldwin Turner Fellowships through the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. As part of a $1 million endowment from The Kraft Heinz Company, we have established The Kraft Heinz Company Human Nutrition Fellowship Program. These fellowships are part of our effort to increase diversity in the Division and are reserved for under-represented minority applicants who are US citizens.

Many Nutritional Sciences graduate students receive fellowships and scholarships from the University of Illinois, the UIUC Graduate College and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. In addition, Nutritional Sciences graduate students successfully compete at the national level for prestigious fellowships from professional scientific societies (e.g. American Society for Nutrition, American Society of Animal Science, Society of Toxicology) or funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the National Science Foundation (NSF).