USA Scholarships
Georgetown PhD Scholarship 2026 - Full Funding & Stipend
A Georgetown PhD scholarship in 2026 is not something you apply for separately, and that is the first thing to understand about how funding works here. Georgetown awards merit-based aid on the recommendation of each academic programme, so the department that admits you is the same body that decides your package, and the two decisions arrive together. At doctoral level the package is built to cover everything. In Biomedical Graduate Education, the part of the university that publishes hard figures, an incoming PhD student on a merit fellowship receives tuition, a stipend, student health insurance and dental insurance. For 2026-27 that stipend is $40,922 across nine months or $44,605 across twelve, and the tuition it displaces is not trivial: pre-thesis tuition lists at $31,416 per semester, dropping to $2,750 a semester once you reach thesis status. Conditions are the ordinary ones, continued satisfactory academic progress and full-time enrolment. Numbers differ by school and programme, so treat the biomedical figures as the documented benchmark rather than a universal rate. One thing that applies across the board: Georgetown PhD students who work as assistants are covered by the collective bargaining agreement between the university and the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees, GAGE-AFT, which sets minimum pay and raises rather than leaving them to each department. Deadlines belong to the programmes. Most doctoral applications for a fall start close on 1 December at 11:59 PM EST.
What is the Georgetown PhD Scholarship?
Search for a Georgetown PhD scholarship and you will not find one, because Georgetown does not run a single named doctoral award. What it runs instead is a funding package, and the department that admits you is the same body that decides it. Merit-based aid at Georgetown comes in four shapes, scholarships, PhD assistantships, PhD fellowships and master's stipends, and all of them are given on the recommendation of the academic programme. For a doctoral applicant that has one very practical consequence: there is no scholarship form to fill in. The admission application is the funding application, and the two decisions land together.
At doctoral level the package is meant to cover everything, and Biomedical Graduate Education is where Georgetown puts real numbers in public. Incoming PhD students there can receive merit fellowship awards covering tuition, a stipend, student health insurance and dental insurance, conditional on full-time enrolment and continued satisfactory academic progress. The 2026-27 stipend is $40,922 across nine months or $44,605 across twelve. Look at what the tuition line is worth alongside that, because pre-thesis PhD tuition lists at $31,416 per semester before dropping to $2,750 a semester once you reach thesis status. Two caveats matter. Those are BGE figures rather than a university-wide rate, so ask your own programme what a first-year offer actually looks like. And Washington DC is not cheap, so a stipend that reads well on paper still needs testing against rent.
One structural thing separates Georgetown from many peers. PhD students who work as assistants are covered by the collective bargaining agreement between the university and the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees, GAGE-AFT, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. That agreement sets minimum pay and scheduled raises rather than leaving them to departmental discretion, which means the number in your offer letter comes with a floor and a trajectory attached. Programme pages point at it directly when they describe financial support, and it is the document to read before accepting anything.
The calendar belongs to the programmes, not to a central office, and it clusters in three places. Most fall-start doctorates close on 1 December, among them Global Infectious Disease, Biology, Biostatistics, History, Linguistics, Nursing and Psychology. A second group closes 15 December, including Economics, Government, Philosophy, Spanish and Theological and Religious Studies. A third runs to 15 January, with Applied Mathematics and Arabic and Islamic Studies there, plus the final rounds for Chemistry and Computer Science whose priority dates fall in December. Several biomedical doctorates, including Neuroscience, Microbiology and Immunology, and Tumor Biology, take a summer start with a 1 December deadline of their own. Everything is due by 11:59 PM EST on the day, filed through gradapply.georgetown.edu. If you are comparing funded doctoral routes across institutions, the GEM Fellowship Program guide covers the industry-sponsored route into a US PhD and the ERP Scholarship guide the German one. Georgetown's own terms sit on the Graduate School merit-based aid page.
Eligibility
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✓Admission to a Georgetown doctoral programmeMerit-based awards are given on the recommendation of each academic programme, so the funding decision is made by the department that admits you. No admission, no award, and there is no route to the money that bypasses the doctoral application.
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✓Full-time enrolment in the PhDGeorgetown states full-time enrolment in the PhD programme as a condition of the merit fellowship awards that cover tuition, stipend and insurance. Part-time study does not carry the package.
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✓Continued satisfactory academic progressThe other named condition on the award. Funding is not granted once at admission and forgotten: it continues on the basis of progress towards the degree, which for most doctoral programmes means clearing the qualifying exam and the dissertation proposal defence on schedule.
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✓Meeting the programme's own admission barRequirements are set programme by programme rather than centrally. The PhD in Global Infectious Disease, for example, expects a candidate who can work across microbiology, epidemiology, data science and policy in a single 30-credit first year.
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✓Applying by your programme's deadlineDeadlines are not uniform. Fall-start doctoral programmes cluster on 1 December, 15 December and 15 January, and Georgetown requires applications in by 11:59 PM EST on the date. Some programmes run priority and final rounds, where the priority date is the one that matters for funding.
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✓Willingness to teach, where the programme requires itSome doctoral programmes build teaching into the degree. Global Infectious Disease makes it a requirement, satisfied by a semester as a teaching assistant, teaching an undergraduate class as a senior candidate, or designing and teaching a short course.
Benefits
- Stipend, 12 months $44,605 for 2026-27 in Biomedical Graduate Education
- Stipend, 9 months $40,922 for 2026-27 in Biomedical Graduate Education
- Tuition Covered by the merit fellowship award
- Student health insurance Included in the award
- Dental insurance Included in the award
- Union coverage PhD assistants are covered by the GAGE-AFT agreement
- A separate scholarship application None, the department recommends you
- The same rate across the university No, packages differ by school and programme
- Funding regardless of progress No, awards depend on satisfactory academic progress
- Pre-thesis tuition $31,416 per semester in 2026-27
- Thesis-stage tuition $2,750 per semester
- External training grants NIH T32 programmes support many biomedical PhD students
- Joint routes MD/PhD, and dissertation research through the GU-NIH programme
- Living costs in Washington DC The stipend has to stretch to them
- Federal loans as the main plan Not the intent for a funded PhD, though they exist
Document checklist
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✓The Georgetown graduate applicationFiled through gradapply.georgetown.edu, and it doubles as your funding application. Submit by 11:59 PM EST on your programme's deadline, since the portal closes on the date rather than the following morning.
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✓A statement of purposeProgramme-specific in both length and focus. For interdisciplinary doctorates the useful move is showing you can hold two fields at once rather than proving depth in one, since that is what the admitting committee is staffing for.
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✓Transcripts from every institutionRequired for the admission decision, which is the same decision that determines your funding. Unofficial copies are usually accepted at application stage and official ones on enrolment, but confirm with your programme.
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✓Letters of recommendationSet by the programme, commonly three. Because the department recommends you for the merit award as well as for admission, letters that speak to your capacity to finish a five-year research degree carry more weight than general praise.
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✓A research statement or writing sampleRequired by many doctoral programmes and shaped by the discipline. Where a programme expects you to arrive with a dissertation direction, this is where you show it is realistic rather than merely ambitious.
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✓Test scores where the programme asksRequirements vary and several Georgetown doctoral programmes have moved away from the GRE. Check your specific programme page rather than assuming, because a missing required score is a rejected application.
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✓English proficiency, for international applicantsStandard for applicants whose prior degree was not taught in English. International PhD students are eligible for the same merit funding, but the Office of Global Services handles the immigration side separately.
How to apply
Deadline and timeline
FAQ
Are Georgetown PhD programs fully funded?
At doctoral level the packages are designed to be. Georgetown offers PhD assistantships and PhD fellowships as merit-based aid, and in Biomedical Graduate Education the university states that incoming PhD students can receive merit fellowship awards covering tuition, stipend, student health insurance and dental insurance. What varies is the amount and the source, which are set by each school and programme rather than centrally, so confirm the specifics with the department you are applying to.
How much is the Georgetown PhD stipend?
For 2026-27, Biomedical Graduate Education publishes $40,922 over nine months and $44,605 over twelve. Those are the clearest figures Georgetown puts in public, and they apply to BGE rather than to every doctorate in the university. PhD students working as assistants are also covered by the GAGE-AFT collective bargaining agreement, which sets minimum pay and scheduled increases across the contract term.
Does Georgetown cover PhD tuition?
Yes, within the merit fellowship award. The figure being covered is substantial: pre-thesis PhD tuition in Biomedical Graduate Education lists at $31,416 per semester for 2026-27, falling to $2,750 per semester at thesis stage. That drop is why the headline value of a funded Georgetown PhD is front-loaded, and why the tuition line is worth as much attention as the stipend when you compare offers.
What is the Georgetown PhD application deadline for 2026?
Deadlines are set per programme, and applications must be submitted by 11:59 PM EST. For a fall start, the biggest group falls on 1 December, covering Global Infectious Disease, Biology, Biostatistics, History, Linguistics, Nursing and Psychology. A second group closes 15 December, including Economics, Government, Philosophy and Theological and Religious Studies, and a third on 15 January. Several biomedical doctorates run on a summer start with a 1 December deadline instead.
Is there a separate scholarship application for a Georgetown PhD?
No. Merit-based awards are given on the recommendation of each academic programme, so the admission application is the funding application. That changes where the effort goes: instead of a scholarship essay, the statement of purpose, research statement and letters have to carry the case for funding you as well as admitting you.
Do Georgetown PhD students get health insurance?
In Biomedical Graduate Education the merit fellowship award explicitly covers student health insurance and dental insurance alongside tuition and stipend. Coverage details and rates are published by Georgetown Student Health, and the conditions attached to the award are continued satisfactory academic progress and full-time enrolment in the PhD.
Can international students get Georgetown PhD funding?
Yes. Merit-based doctoral awards are made on academic grounds by the programme, and international students are considered on the same basis. The separate questions are immigration and cost of living, which the Office of Global Services handles through its financial aid and money matters guidance. What international applicants cannot access is US federal student aid, so the departmental package matters more, not less.
What is GAGE-AFT at Georgetown?
The Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, is the union representing graduate student workers at Georgetown. Its collective bargaining agreement with the university covers PhD students working as assistants and sets minimum stipends and scheduled raises. Programme pages, including Global Infectious Disease, point to that agreement when describing financial support, so it is worth reading before you accept an offer.
How long does a Georgetown PhD take?
Five years is the design in several programmes. Global Infectious Disease states that it anticipates students completing in five, with a 30-credit first year of core coursework, a qualifying exam at the end of Year 1, and a written dissertation proposal defended orally by December of Year 3. Most of Year 2 goes on research and building towards that proposal.
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