Graduate students accepted into the Chemistry Graduate Program receive or are eligible for financial support. We describe the most common types below. For more detailed information, please contact the Graduate Program Administrator.
Graduate Stipends
All students who are accepted into the graduate program and do not hold a scholarship designed to cover all or part of these costs receive a graduate stipend. For full-time graduate students during a full academic year (September 1 to August 31), this financial support is typically:
- a Teaching Assistantship ($11,957 for 260 hours as of September 2022) and
- a Research Scholarship ($14,500 for M.Sc. and $16,250 for Ph.D.).
Our graduate stipend is intended to cover the costs of tuition and living expenses.
A foreign student Tuition Scholarship ($9,000 for visa students) is available for students studying at the Master’s level to cover the difference in tuition. Visa PhD students pay the same tuition and are compensated in the same way as their domestic counterparts. More information on other sources of funding is available from the School of Graduate Studies.
The total level of this support is reviewed annually to ensure students are paid at a level competitive with other Canadian Chemistry Departments. The time limits for financial support in the M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs are described in the Chemistry Graduate Handbook. A separate application for financial assistance is not required; all applicants are automatically considered for financial support.
Scholarships
Graduate students are encouraged to apply for major scholarships awarded at the national (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council or NSERC) and provincial (Ontario Graduate Scholarships) level. More information about external scholarships is available from the School of Graduate Studies.
The Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology also awards a number of entrance scholarships to qualified incoming students and offers scholarships to in-course students based on their graduate program performance. All incoming students are automatically considered for an entrance scholarship at the time of application. For more information on the awards listed below, please contact the Graduate Program Administrator.
Current awards available include:
- International Excellence Awards
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Awards (internally allocated)
- Brian McCarry Graduate Chemistry Scholarship for research with industrial focus
- Ronald J Gillespie Prize for research in inorganic chemistry
- Impact Awards for students in Chemistry who have published a high impact research article or communication. Two to three are typically given each year. Articles selected for this award typically have the recipient as the first author and are published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals
- Manske-McLean and Brooman Bursaries
- Ed Hileman Travel Awards to assist with the cost of conferences in North America (value $500)
- Russell Bell Travel Awards to assist with the cost of conferences outside of North America (range $1000 to $2000)
- $500 travel awards from the McMaster Graduate Student Association (GSA) (2 deadlines for applications each year, typically in September and May)