The Department of Health Behavior is committed to recruiting and retaining an outstanding and diverse student body.
Education is a significant investment. We work to help students find funding to reduce their costs, including providing information about sources of funding through the department, Gillings School, UNC and external sources.
Students fund their training through a combination of sources including loans, fellowships and awards, research, teaching, graduate assistantships, personal savings and outside funding.
Costs
Our tuition and fees are lower than those of other top schools of public health. Costs for all health behavior students include tuition, and university and departmental fees.
- Master’s students pay a field fee, which covers some of the costs of the practicum and capstone.
- Doctoral students pay an orientation and graduation fee, which covers some of the cost of professional development activities.
Health insurance is mandatory for all students throughout enrollment. Students are enrolled in a university-sponsored health insurance program, unless they provide proof of other coverage and waive the university coverage.
More information
- UNC tuition and fees
- SOPHAS application fee waivers
- Students need to pay close attention to when payments are due.
Department of Health Behavior funding
- Tuition remission awards, made available to the department by the UNC Graduate School, pay the difference between non-resident and resident tuition at the academic affairs rate. Tuition remission awards are paired with research assistantships or teaching assistantships and allocated to first-year, out-of-state students. It is essential that students understand the eligibility requirements and limitations on the amount of the remission. Tuition remission awards are generally only available to students during the first year of their training, so many students establish North Carolina residency. (See below.)
- Research assistantships (RAs) are appointments where students are research assistants on faculty or departmental projects that meet the eligibility criteria for a tuition remission.
- Graduate assistantships (GAs) are assignments to a faculty or departmental project and graduate assistants are paid on an hourly basis. The number of hours and the hourly wage varies.
- Health Behavior travel awards support travel for students presenting a paper or a poster at a public health conference or another professional conference.
- Health behavior recruitment awards cover training costs for incoming students. Awardees are selected by the department based on materials in the application for admission. Sources of funding include fellowships and awards funded by the Graduate School, the Gillings School and the department. The amount varies. Awards include:
- Dorothy Dunn (doctoral)
- Hatch-Barnhill (master’s only)
- Hochbaum Award (doctoral only)
- Gillings Merit (doctoral only)
- Alumni Annual Fund (doctoral only)
School Funding
North Carolina Residency
Many students who enter the program as non-residents establish NC residency so that they qualify for NC resident tuition in subsequent years. The requirements and deadlines for establishing NC residency are very specific. Students must plan for how they will meet the requirements and deadlines well before coming to Chapel Hill.
Tuition remission awards are generally only available to students during the first year of their training. See the Gillings School’s N.C. Residency page or the UNC Graduate School’s NC residency page.
