The department is happy to support travel expenses for students presenting their research at outside conferences, as well as other research-related expenses. We highly recommend, in particular, that all students make one or more conference or seminar presentations outside the department prior to going on the job market, to gain experience in presenting your work. Support is available under the following guidelines:
(1) The department will support students' travel expenses for presenting their research at conferences, as well as other research-related expenses (such as data acquisition, journal submission fees, attending summer workshops, or costs of running an experiment), subject to a lifetime limit of $1500 per student.
(2) Students are strongly encouraged to expand their budget constraint by applying for the Goldhaber Travel grant from the Graduate School. The Goldhaber award will cover up to half of the expenses of conference travel, up to a limit depending on the location of the conference, provided the department provides matching support. The department will provide matching support subject to the $1500 lifetime limit discussed above. In other words, the Department's matching support will count against the $1500 limit, but the Graduate School's support will not. The Goldhaber Award can be used only once, per Grad School rules.
In addition, students presenting their work at conferences outside the US can defray conference registration fees up to $500 using the Graduate School’s International Conference Student Support Award.
(3) The department will also support the travel of expenses of students going to the ASSA meetings in January in the year they are going on the job market. These expenses will not count against the $1500 limit.
(4) The department may award extra travel and research support to students as prizes for department competitions such as the third year paper contest and the Betancourt Fellowship. (The Betancourt Fellowship does include a $500 fund for travel and research support, for instance, and this money will add to the winning student's lifetime limit one-for-one).
(5) The Director of Graduate Studies and Department Chairman will consider requests for extensions to the $1500 limit on a case by case basis. The student's request must be accompanied by an email or letter from the student's main advisor that explains why the extra funding would be worthwhile and why alternative funding is not available. The DGS and Chairman will evaluate the merit of the proposed extension, the size of the request, and the student's potential and performance in the program when deciding on these requests. Requests should be made by email to the Director of Graduate Studies.
(6) In most cases, students will not find it optimal to use these funds prior to the onset of serious dissertation research in the third year. Travelling to a conference in the first year to present research done with an advisor as an undergraduate or MA student, for instance, is not an efficient use of these funds.
(7) Students who wish travel support should compose an email anwering the questions below and submit it to the Director of Graduate Studies, who will notify the student and relevant office staff upon approval. Students applying for a Goldhaber grant should also download and fill out the Goldhaber form on the Grad School website, and leave the form in the mailbox of the Director of Graduate Studies, who will fill out the lower right hand portion and return to the student. In general, students will be asked to save their travel receipts and submit them to relevant office staff for reimbursement when travel is complete.
1. YOUR NAME:
2 What item or endeavor would you like the Department to consider funding? [Please be specific-for instance, identify dates and location of conference]
3. Why is this important for your research or professional development? (i.e. Why did you choose this particular data set, conference, etc.?)
4. What is the total cost and how did you arrive at this number?
5. Who else is contributing and how much?
6. How much would you like the Department to provide?
7. Have you received funding from the Department in the past? If yes, please list amounts and usage.
8. Have you received a Goldhaber Travel Grant in the past?
ALSO, please ask your major dissertation advisor to send a short email (a few sentences) to John Shea, certifying that this conference or expense is a worthwhile use of department funds.
