Grants and fellowships, how do they work?

[Tone L]

Good day.

I wish to purse an M.S degree in the science field (aerospace, satellite). Do you need to be in a graduate program to get NSF or NASA fellowships/grants? I would hate to go to school and one have to anticipate/pray to get a grant/fellowship.

Are most TA positions are usually given to PhD students?

 

[Choppy]

Usually the financial support will be outlined specifically in your letter of offer. The details are specific to the country you're in and the school/program you attend.

In Canada, for example, it's common in physics programs for MSc students to be supported for two years and PhD students to be supported for four years. The support comes in the form of a combination of a stipend and a teaching assistanceship. Students can receive additional awards as well - some internal and some that are applied for externally. These allow the student to focus on research. Sometimes professors will also have funding to support the students so they don't have to teach. Also, often when a student receives an external award, they still get the stipend, which means they don't have to live as frugal of a lifestyle as they might otherwise.

Support can be different for professional engineering MSc programs.

When you're investigating different graduate programs, you should be able to find details of minimum guaranteed support levels on each program's website. If it's not listed, you should be able to contact them.