All incoming graduate students will be provided financial support during the first academic year in the form of a Genetics Program graduate assistantship or other university assistantships or fellowships. After the Genetics Program graduate student completes his/her laboratory rotations and decides on a laboratory to pursue his/her doctoral research , the major professor will arrange internal or external financial support for the student for the remainder of the students graduate program.

The Genetics graduate assistant stipend for 2004-2005 was $1,631 per month. In addition, graduate assistants receive up to a nine-credit tuition waiver per semester (six credits are considered full time for graduate students) and paid health insurance. Further information regarding the graduate assistantship benefits can be found at the MSU Graduate web site at http://www.msu.edu/user/gradschl/all/gradasst.htm .

The files of exceptionally qualified applicants will be forwarded by the Genetics Program Director to the Dean of the College of Natural Science, as nominees for a Biotechnology Research Fellowship, a Doctoral Recruiting Fellowship or a Michigan State University Distinguished Fellowship. An effort is made within the Program to provide equal opportunity and to impose equal requirements on all graduate students. All Genetics Program graduate students are required to participate in research, academic course work and teaching as part of their degree requirements.