The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers financial support in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships [GTA]. The department also currently supports graduate students as Graduate Research Assistants [GRA], when funding is available. The assistantships cover tuition (up to 12 credits per semester) and some basic fees, and the student is paid a stipend (subject to state and federal taxes). We expect to see a steady growth in the number of supported graduate students over the next few years.
Graduate Teaching Assistant. Being a teaching assistant is both challenging and exciting. A typical new GTA is required to teach 5 calculus lab sections and must hold 5 office hours, for a total of 10 contact hours each week; other duties include preparation and grading. The lab sessions are primarily problem-solving or tutorial sessions, with the course material being covered in lecture by an experienced professor. Lectures meet three or four times a week, and the lab sections meet once a week. Advanced GTAs are often given the responsibility of teaching their own class. GTAs can expect to work up to twenty hours per week.
Graduate Research Assistant. A research assistantship may be offered to a well-prepared student by a faculty member who has external funding. The student would be responsible for assisting the professor to achieve the goals of the funded research. Normally, the results of this collaboration will form the basis of the student's Master's or Ph.D. thesis, and the sponsoring professor will serve as the student's thesis advisor.