Our department provides five years of financial support to all of its doctoral students. The educational fees and stipends are covered through a combination of:

  • Grants and Fellowships (both University and Extramural)
  • Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) appointments
  • Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) appointments

The department does not offer financial support to the graduate students on Master's track. Master's students are encouraged to apply for Extramural Fellowships via Graduate Division Fellowship Office.

Dr. Napoli, Department Chair, on student financial support:

Fellowships

Graduate Division Fellowship Office is the # 1 resource center for students seeking information on fellowships funded by the University and outside sources. Please check this site regularly for the complete and updated list of the fellowships available as well as for the criteria for the award and the application deadlines.

 

Graduate Student Instructor

The term Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) is synonymous with Teaching Assistant (TA) at other universities. A GSI serves as an apprentice under the active supervision of the faculty member who is the Instructor of Record for the course. GSI appointments typically assigned for one semester, and reappointment is not automatic. ASEs are obligated to inform their supervisor when they first perceive that their assignments might exceed the assigned workload maximum for their appointments.

Duties: With a usual 50% appointment, you can be expected to work 16–20 hours per week, during instructional and examination periods, including time spent in preparation, classroom and laboratory teaching, office consultation, and reading student papers. Duties entail leading discussion sections or labs or instruction of prescribed course content, under the active direction and supervision of a faculty member who has final responsibility for the course’s entire instruction and for the performance of GSIs. Other course support duties may include, but are not limited to, holding office hours, grading, and participation in development of quizzes.

For further information please read “What you need to know about being GSI...”

 

Graduate Student Researcher

Duties: GSRs perform research broadly related to their degree programs in an academic department or research unit under the direction of a faculty member or authorized Principal Investigator. GSRs may or may not collaborate in the publication of research as determined by the faculty member directing the work. GSRs may not be assigned teaching, administrative, or general assistance duties. This is not intended to exclude research-related duties such as quantitative analysis, bibliographic searches or summaries, text editing, lab projects, computer programming, and a reasonable amount of lab maintenance and cleaning.

For further information please read “What you need to know about being GSR...”