The Graduate School
Advancing graduate education. Enhancing the graduate student experience.
Why The Graduate School
With over 200 graduate programs and 10,000+ graduate students at the University of Maryland, The Graduate School is a home for every scholarly and professional interest. The Graduate School seeks to ensure that every single graduate student has the funding, mentorship, and career guidance to thrive at UMD.
As valuable as they are to the University mission, our graduate students need our support to become trailblazers in their fields and leaders in their communities. Help us support our graduate students’ investment in their futures by supporting fellowships, travel awards, mentor training, career and professional development, and networking, collaborative, and community-building activities.
Graduate students will become the next leaders of their fields, inventing, discovering, advancing - ultimately, tackling the Grand Challenges of our time - and making our world a better place through their actions.
Our Momentum
48
Top 25 Graduate Programs
U.S. News and World Report 2024-2025 Best Graduate Schools
$12M+
In student and faculty support provided annually by The Graduate School
As fellowships, summer research, travel stipends, and more
230+
Fellowships and awards supported annually by The Graduate School
Awards that touch the breadth of the grad student experience
Why now
Creating new knowledge. Translating research into applied knowledge. Creating what is next. The missions of doctoral and masters-level graduate education are active across more than 200 programs at the University Maryland to prepare the nation’s future researchers, scholars, creatives, and professionals.
Graduate degrees and certificates offer forward movement: they increase career advancement, enhance earning potential over a lifetime, and provide a professional network to last through job transitions and life changes.
Graduate students work alongside faculty and staff to solve the grand challenges of our time, across all sectors of society and around the world. Graduate students make extraordinary contributions to our campus community every day. They are the future leaders and innovators of their fields, solving complex problems that will have an impact far beyond our campus. Their pursuit of academic and research excellence expands from the classroom to the lab to our global community.
Yet, graduate students need the financial and social capital to maximize their own potential. Their efforts to propel research forward and expand the boundaries of knowledge are woven into the very DNA of UMD. Now is the time to partner with The Graduate School to create and augment graduate students’ pathways to leadership and excellence.
Our 10,000 GradTerps are part of a broad community of scholars, researchers, practitioners, and teachers who are among the best and brightest from around the world. As you pursue your graduate degree, we want you to feel connected, engaged, and supported, and encourage you to take full advantage of the breadth of our campus opportunities and resources. We value the creativity, persistence, curiosity, and drive you bring to our campus.
Dr. Stephen Roth
Associate Provost and Dean, The Graduate School
Our Priorities
Breaking New Ground: Graduate Education at Maryland
High-impact career and professional development.
Mentorship with world-class faculty.
Fellowships and awards to support the scholars, thought leaders, creators and inventors, and principled citizens of tomorrow.
Join us to create a future where every trailblazing GradTerp has the means to carve a path toward excellence.
Discovery House was specifically designed by and for grad students. This is a critically important investment to attract and support our future leaders.
Spaces are available for naming.
Discovery House: Innovative Grad Housing at UMD
An innovative living-learning community for grad students - one of a kind investment in student success.
GC² Faculty Fellows will lead students around Grand Challenge themes - AI, sustainability, democracy, etc.
Grand Challenges Graduate Communities - GC²
Endowed and current-use fellowships can support:
• Recruitment fellowships
• Industry pipelines
• Completion fellowships
• Professional development grants
• Awards for faculty mentors
Funding Grad Student Excellence
Let’s build on UMD’s leadership and successes by developing the university’s first Graduate Fellowship in AI, and a Graduate Do Good Campus Fellowship to recruit the very best students of the future.
Innovative New Fellowships
Leaders & Champions
Smrithan Ravichandran, Ph.D. Candidate, Chemical Physics ‘26, Kulkarni Summer Research Fellow
My research helps harness the world’s most powerful lasers to answer fundamental questions about our universe.
Jenna Roberson, Ph.D. Student, College of Education, 2025 McNair Doctoral Fellow
My fellowship has provided a sense of belonging and affirmation that my experiences and perspective have a place in academic spaces.
Masuka Straton, Biostatistics MPH Student, School of Public Health
I’m passionate about using data-driven solutions to address health disparities and build stronger, healthier communities.