Houghton Fund grants for students in their
first two years of graduate study.
 

      Each PAOC student in year 1 or 2 of graduate study, and who has not completed the General Examination, will be awarded a grant of up to $1000 per year to help defray educational expenses; the cost of this grant will be met from the Houghton Fund.  Students should apply to the Fund for each such expense.

The following rules and procedures will apply:

i)              Advisers will be required to confirm that claims are for legitimate expenses related to the student’s PAOC education. 
Examples of such expenses are
■    purchase of computer hardware or software;
■    travel to meetings relevant to the student’s
      area of specialization;
■    purchase of textbooks and professional journals
      (but see item ii)). 
The Houghton Fund Committee will be the sole arbiter of what  constitutes a legitimate educational expense.

ii)             Each year, for each PAOC student, the Houghton Fund will pay for one membership in a professional society and one journal subscription from that society, at the eligible student rate.  This is available to all PAOC students, including those in their first two years, and will not count toward the $1000 limit.

iii)           If the full grant (of $2000 in total) is not spent by the end of the second year, the balance may be carried over into subsequent years (provided the student continues to be registered as a student in PAOC).  However, further grants will not accumulate in the third and later years of study.

iv)           Approval must be obtained before the expense is incurred.  Funds will be reimbursed for expenses actually incurred. 

v)            Requests for approval should be made using an application form obtainable below.  Completed forms should be submitted to Mary Elliff (room 54-1710, phone 3-2281, melliff@mit.edu).  You will be notified of whether your expenses are approved.  After approval, make the purchases, and bring/send the receipts to Mary for reimbursement.

vi)           Sales tax cannot be reimbursed.  Students should obtain a “Sales Tax Exempt Purchaser Certificate” from Mary Elliff before making any purchases.

vii)         Multiple requests in any one year are permitted, subject to the limit of $1000 per year in total.

viii)  This scheme came into effect Fall Term, 2004. 
Regrettably, retroactive grants are not available. 
Accordingly, students who entered PAOC prior to fall 2002 are not eligible for these new-student grants; but they may apply for funds described here:
http://paoc.mit.edu/paoc/events/houghton%20fund/houghton.grants.3.plus.htm
Students who entered PAOC in fall 2003 may apply under this scheme for grants up to $1,000 in total. 
Students who began graduate study in fall 2004 or later may apply for the full amount of $1,000 for each of their first two years.

Touch here for an APPLICATION.