Application forms for admission and financial aid may be obtained from the Admissions Office of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, Holyoke Center, Third Floor, 1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-3654. Prospective students should request these forms in the preceding late summer or autumn, and should make every effort to submit them before the due date. We encourage online submission of the application. See www.gsas.harvard.edu.
Candidates for admission are required to take the GRE General and the Physics Subject Test at the earliest convenient date. The February GRE date is too late for consideration. Prospective candidates are always welcome to visit the Center for Astrophysics to meet the faculty and students.
Further information may be obtained from:
The Department Administrator
Harvard University Department of Astronomy
60 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138
Telephone 617-495-3753
department@cfa.harvard.edu
Financial Support
The Department of Astronomy plans to support all students who are accepted for graduate study. The department does not require or expect a statement of financial need upon application to the Graduate School. Students are accepted and supported purely on the basis of merit. The normal pattern of student support is a combination of a national or a University fellowship, a teaching fellowship, and a research assistantship.
Prospective students are urged to apply for outside fellowships that offer tuition and/or stipend support during graduate school. Among the many fellowships available are the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (http://www.nsfgrfp.org/), the Hertz Foundation (http://www.hertzfoundation.org/), the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship (http://www.asee.org/ndseg/), and the NASA GSRP Fellowship (http://fellowships.hq.nasa.gov/gsrp/program/). International students should apply for outside funding such as the Fulbright (http://www.gsas.harvard.edu/images/stories/pdfs/ddra.pdf) and KnoxFellowships (http://www.frankknox.harvard.edu/).
Students gain teaching experience during their graduate career by teaching part-time (usually ten hours a week) for a minimum of two semesters. The first two semesters of teaching are part of a student's compensation package. Students who undertake additional teaching (with the consent of their advisor and the Committee on Academic Studies) will normally keep half of their teaching stipend if sufficient research funds are available. Students with active outside awards, which pay their tuition and stipend in full, may keep all of their funds from teaching.