Stipend Calculations

The School of Historical Studies calculates the amount of stipend each accepted Member is offered based on policies set by the School, and information provided by the scholar in the membership application. Information used to calculate the stipend includes the amount of the annual salary at the time of application, the percentage of support that the scholar expects to continue to receive from his or her home institution, and any outside fellowships or grants that overlap with the scholar’s stay at the Institute. In general, the School’s policies are intended to replace lost salary (up to certain set maximums), and to insure that all scholars who are offered membership have adequate funds to support themselves during their time at the Institute. The School has a fixed budget each year that can be used for Member stipends. The stipend-related policies are designed to maximize those resources so that we can offer the membership opportunity to as many highly-qualified scholars as possible, as a benefit to the scholarly community as a whole, while at the same time making sure that each Member has resources sufficient for his or her support during the membership period. In general, these stipend policies set by the School are the basis of all stipend decisions, and extraneous factors are not taken into consideration when calculating stipend amounts.

Additional assumptions and considerations include the following:

Stipends are intended to provide support for Members, not to pay for teaching replacements in Members’ home institutions.
In order to enable the School to invite a greater number of scholars, and expand its intellectual community, outside support in the form of sabbatical salaries, fellowships and grants are factored into the calculation of the stipend. If combined resources exceed the scholar’s regular annual salary (or, in case the regular annual salary is below $80,000, if the combined total exceeds $80,000), then the Institute stipend is reduced.
In most cases the maximum stipend amount offered by the Institute is $80,000 for the academic year, or $40,000 for one term. (At the School’s discretion, a few exceptions to the set maximums may be made, but only for a few of the most senior scholars, whose regular annual salaries exceed $100,000. These scholars are identified at the time of selection and are informed of the offered adjustment in the acceptance letter.)
Considering the cost of living in Princeton, $80,000 is assumed to be the necessary amount for a full academic year, and $40,000 for one term. Scholars whose regular annual salary is less than $80,000 will have their stipends calculated as if their salary were the full $80,000. All other adjustments noted here still apply, but with that assumption.

The following applies to scholars whose regular annual salaries are $80,000 or more:

If a membership is offered for two terms (considered to be a full academic year), and the scholar has some support from other sources, the Institute stipend will be calculated to make up for lost salary. This is done by taking the sum of any sabbatical salary plus grants or fellowships, and determining the difference between that and the scholar’s regular annual salary. The stipend will be either the total amount of lost salary, or $80,000, whichever is less.
If a membership is offered for one term (half of the academic year) the calculation process is the same as noted above, except half of the annual salary is the assumed amount needed. The stipend offered will either make up the difference to half salary, or it will be $40,000, whichever is less.
Scholars whose home institutions offer top-up funding (and who have no other grant or fellowship support) will be offered a stipend of not less than $50,000 for a full academic year, or $25,000 for a single term (half of the academic year.)
Scholars who will receive no other outside support will be offered the maximum stipend for the period of the membership, according to the policies noted above.
Scholars who are selected for membership with stipend, and who have their full salary covered by other sources (such as those who have full sabbatical salary from the home institution), will be offered a token stipend of $4,500 per term, intended to defray some of the added costs of a stay in Princeton.

We trust that scholars selected for membership will recognize the value of the opportunity not only for themselves but also for others in the scholarly community. We ask scholars who do have an opportunity to obtain other resources for their support to pursue those possibilities. Outside resources that are used to support Members in the School not only benefit the wider scholarly community by enabling us to invite additional Members, but also as the group of Members we can invite is expanded, this also expands the intellectual community of which each Member is a part.

Policies pertaining to non-stipendiary membership are posted separately.