Yale University

Each year, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences admits around 450 of the world’s top scholars to its postgraduate programs. Yale’s was the first graduate school in the US to confer a PhD degree, and 85 percent of its students pursue doctoral studies. The school is divided into four divisions – humanities, social sciences, biological sciences, and physical sciences – and administers 73 degree-granting programs, 56 of which are PhDs, while 19 terminate in master’s degrees.

Yale has an outstanding reputation for the quality of its teaching and wide array of academic resources and services. The admission rate for 2017 was 12.7 percent, so competition for places is fierce. 

Applications are submitted online, with the general requirements being a bachelor's degree (or equivalent), a statement of purpose, university transcripts, standardized test results, three letters of recommendation, and an application fee of $105. 

There may also be special admissions requirements for different programs or required supporting materials. International applicants may also be required to present the result of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which can be substituted for the IELTS. 

Tuition for most full-time study programs at the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences is currently $41,000. However, no PhD student actually pays any tuition, as it’s either covered by a tuition fellowship from the graduate school, research grants or national and international fellowships. 

One of the reasons why Yale is so popular with graduate students is the support Yale provides to its PhD students, starting with outstanding financial aid. Each doctoral student receives an annual stipend of up to $35,150 to help them meet living expenses. This figure is highly competitive with rival universities, but the considerably lower cost of living in New Haven makes the Yale stipend even more favorable.

Support is a watchword for graduate study at Yale. Not only do graduate students receive generous financial backing, they are also robustly supported in their professional development through the Office of Career Strategy and the Center for Teaching and Learning, the latter of which helps graduate students learn how to be better teachers. However, students at Yale teach significantly less than they might at other institutions. Over the course of six years, no more than 14 percent of a doctoral student’s time is devoted to teaching as part of their training, and for many it is much less.