University initiative benefits entering Ph.D. students

December 1, 2008 -  

As of this fall, the University of Chicago’s $55 million graduate aid initiative includes entering Ph.D. students in the Divinity School. Future Disciples House Ph.D. students will be included in this initiative. The initiative provides entering Ph.D. students with a five-year financial aid package of full tuition, a $20,000 stipend, health benefits, plus funding for two summers of research. “This is good news for the Disciples Divinity House,” Dean Kris Culp commented. “It will extend generous support to new Ph.D. students, while allowing limited House resources to be focused on M.Div. students, on a select number of A.M. students, and on advanced Ph.D. students who are completing their dissertations." Previously, DDH awarded its entering Ph.D. Scholars 60% tuition or $21,300 at 2008-09 rates, a modest stipend ($3,300), and housing assistance. (The Divinity School provided the remaining 40% of tuition and sometimes an additional stipend.) “We are committed to continuing a program of shared intellectual, theological, and vocational inquiry that includes all Disciples Scholars—M.Div., A.M., and Ph.D. students,” Culp added. The Scholarship Committee of the Board of Trustees has been studying the implications of the funding initiative for the DDH’s entire scholarship program.