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2013 Horticultural Sciences Academic Program Review Section 3 Page 8
non-land grant schools (Table 3.6). While teaching only assistantships constituted a smaller proportion of funding
sources for graduate students at land grant schools, when merged with combined responsibility assistantships, the
proportionate funding source (17.0%) was similar to that of teaching assistantships at non-land grant schools
(17.4%).
Table 3.6. Graduate student funding (by source) at landgrants and state/province institutions in
horticulture.
Category Landgrant (%) State/province (%) TAMU HORT (%)
Fellowships 7.5 3.0 0
Teaching Assistantships 8.3 17.4 17
Research Assistantships 60.7 44.8 77
Extension Assistantships 0.5 0 0
Combination Assistantships 8.7 0 0
Home Country 5.0 5.5 0
None/self-funded 11.9 28.4 12
Teaching assistantships at the TAMU Department of Horticultural Sciences was also about 17% (our only hard
money assistantship source). Although a relatively small proportion of the overall funding, fellowships were
about twice as much of the funding sources at land grant schools as at non-land grant schools (Table 3.6). On
average, both land grant and non-land grant institutions had about 5% of the horticulture graduate students funded
by their home (non-U.S.) country (Table 3.6). The TAMU Department of Horticultural Sciences currently has no
students funded by their home countries. Approximately 12% of the fulltime TAMU Department of Horticultural
Sciences graduate students were not funded in Fall 2012, with a few additional non-funded part-time students.
This was within a few percent of the mean for land grant schools (Table 3.6). The proportion of non-funded
students increased at non-land grant schools compared to 2005, but decreased for land grant institutions over the
same time span (Arnold et al., 2005).
Mean fellowship stipends at land grant institutions ranged from a mean minimum of $19,265 to a mean maximum
of $21,160. These stipends have increased substantially in comparison to those offered by both types of schools
in 2005 (Arnold et al., 2005). The greater value of fellowships is not surprising as they are frequently used to lure
top candidates to the positions. Absolute minimum / maximum ranges for fellowship stipends were from $1,100
to $40,000 encompassing the widest range of variation in stipends for any of the sources of funding. Research
assistantship stipends had an absolute range of $4,368 to $31,000 per year while teaching stipends had an absolute
range of $6,825 to $26,700. Assistantship stipends typically ranged at land grant institutions from a mean
minimum research stipend of $16,568 to a mean maximum extension assistantship stipend of $23,380 (Table 3.7).
Our Departmental minimum assistantship stipend average of $16,500 ($16,000 Masters, $17,000 Ph.D.) is
comparable to the land grant mean minimum assistantships.
Table 3.7 Value of graduate stipends by type in horticulture programs from a 2013 national survey.
1862 Landgrants State/province
Funding type: Minimum ($/year) Maximum ($/year) Minimum ($/year) Maximum ($/year)
Fellowships $19,265 y $21,160 $17,300 $40,000
Teaching assist $16,863 $18,343 $10,448 $12,997
Research assist. $16,568 $21,349 $15,303 $23,440
Extension assist. $19,429 $23,380 ---- ----
Combination assist. $16,728 $18,678 ---- ----
y Values represent means of those reported as minimums or maximums at individual institutions
Tuition/fees In-state Out-of-state In-state Out-of-state
Cost / year $10,227 z $18,963 $10,103 $15,204
z Values represent means of those reported at individual institutions