Which US Majors Offer the Most Merit Aid and Assistantship Funding
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Sep 30, 2026 • Updated Sep 30, 2026
International graduate students in STEM fields are far more likely to be funded through research or teaching assistantships than students in business, law, or the humanities, where funding usually comes from personal or family money instead.
🎓 Math and computer science drew 25.9% of all international students in the US in 2024/25, engineering another 18.4%
💵 Across all international students, personal and family money is the top funding source at 51.5%, with US colleges and universities funding 19.3%
📩 STEM PhD programs commonly fund students through research or teaching assistantships tied to a lab or department
⏱️ Master's degrees, MBAs, and law degrees rarely come with assistantship funding, even in STEM fields
Funding follows the degree type, not just the field
The biggest factor in whether you get assistantship or merit funding is not your major alone, it is the combination of your field and your degree level. Research doctorates in STEM fields are the most consistently funded path in US higher education for international students. Master's degrees, professional programs, and non-STEM PhDs each follow a thinner, different funding pattern.
Where international students actually study
According to the IIE Open Doors 2025 Fast Facts report , math and computer science was the largest single field for international students in 2024/25 at 25.9% of the total, followed by engineering at 18.4%, business and management at 13.6%, physical and life sciences at 8.1%, and social sciences at 7.3%. This concentration in STEM and business matters because these fields also have very different funding structures at the graduate level.
How international students fund their degrees overall
The same Open Doors data breaks down primary source of funding across all international students, all fields and levels combined, for 2024/25: personal and family funds account for 51.5%, current employment for 25.2%, US college or university funding (scholarships, assistantships, and tuition waivers combined) for 19.3%, and foreign government or university funding for 1.7%. All other sources combined make up the remainder.
| Primary funding source | Share of international students, 2024/25 |
|---|---|
| Personal and family | 51.5% |
| Current employment | 25.2% |
| US college or university | 19.3% |
| Foreign government or university | 1.7% |
| All other sources | 2.3% |
That 19.3% funded by a US college or university is not spread evenly. It concentrates heavily in research-based STEM doctoral programs, where assistantships are part of how departments staff their labs and classrooms, not just a form of student support.
Why STEM PhD programs fund most students
STEM doctoral programs run largely on external research funding: federal grants, industry contracts, and university research budgets. A funded PhD slot usually means a research assistantship, paid to work on a grant-funded project, a teaching assistantship, paid to teach or grade undergraduate courses, or a fellowship, paid with no work requirement, often reserved for the strongest applicants. Departments budget for these positions because the research itself needs the labor, not only because they want to support students.
The NSF Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering tracks primary source of support by field and citizenship status every year and is the most detailed public source for how science and engineering graduate funding breaks down. Check the current year's tables directly for your specific field before relying on a funding assumption drawn from a different field or year.
Where funding is thinner
Master's degrees in most fields, including STEM: assistantships exist but are far more competitive than at the PhD level, and many master's programs are built to run on tuition revenue rather than research budgets.
MBA and other business master's programs: funding is mostly merit scholarships, not assistantships, and international applicants compete for the same limited pool as domestic students.
Law (JD) and medicine (MD): these professional degrees are funded mainly through personal funds, loans that usually require a US cosigner international students often cannot provide, and merit scholarships, not assistantships.
Humanities and many social science PhDs: assistantships exist, mostly teaching-based, but departments typically have fewer funded slots than STEM departments and rely more on university-wide fellowships than external grants.
The three ways STEM PhD programs pay you
Research assistantship (RA): a professor's grant pays your stipend and tuition in exchange for research work tied to that grant. This is the most common route in lab-based sciences and engineering, and it ties your funding to the life of the grant and your advisor's continued support.
Teaching assistantship (TA): the department pays you to teach sections, grade, or run labs for undergraduate courses. This is common across STEM and humanities alike and is usually renewed annually based on teaching performance and continued enrollment.
Fellowship: a stipend with no work requirement attached, funded by the university, an external foundation, or a federal agency. Fellowships are the most competitive and often go to the strongest applicants in the admission cycle, sometimes for the first year only before a student shifts to an RA or TA role.
What to check before you assume you'll be funded
Ask the specific department, not just the university, what share of admitted international students receive funding, and in what form.
Confirm whether an assistantship offer covers full tuition, a stipend, or both, and whether it covers every year of the program or only the first.
Check if the funding is tied to a specific grant or professor, since grant funding can run out mid-degree.
For master's programs, assume you are funding yourself unless the offer letter states an assistantship or scholarship in writing.
Ask current international graduate students in the program directly what share of their cohort is funded, since department websites often describe the best case rather than the typical case.