The Department aims to allow students as much freedom as is possible in choosing research directions, subject to the interests and expertise of the faculty who are available to oversee the work. Thus, the Ph.D. program generally decides which funding source to use to support a student after the student has chosen an advisor or research area. On occasion, the Ph.D. program is able to obtain an individual fellowship for a student through external sources. We also encourage students to seek their own external funding since often the award is prestigious (e.g., NSF or Hertz) or the source provides an opportunity to make professional connections (e.g., an industrial fellowship). The Department supplements the stipends of students with an outside fellowship to meet (and usually exceed) the stipends of students with internal funding. To any student whose spouse or qualifying domestic partner earns less than $200 per month, the Department pays a dependency allowance that is 10% of the student's SCS monthly stipend per dependent.