Graduate Financial Aid

Merit-based full academic year teaching and research assistantships include both 18 semester hours tuition scholarship in addition to a ten-month stipend.

TAs function as classroom teachers, lab or discussion instructors, or instructional assistants, e.g., tutors, paper-graders, project helpers, etc. according to the needs of the Department and the qualifications and experience of the assistant. TAs are expected to work an average of 20 hours per week for the Department. Normally, first or second year TAs serve as discussion section instructors - exam/project helpers in a large lecture course like Calculus, Business Math, or Introductory Statistics. In the third year, after gaining some teaching experience, an assistant may be assigned his/her own one or two sections of a multi-sectioned lower division course.

RAs assist the department in conducting research and are expected to perform research-related activity assigned by the faculty member(s) with whom they work. Typically, RAs are selected from the pool of returning students. RAs actual activities are outlined and supervised by the faculty person in charge of the particular research project. The work done by the RA must be directly associated with this research project.

A small number of MSSC students are supported by Schmitt or Raynor Fellowships, awarded in a competition within the Graduate School, or by other awards. A student who holds a fellowship generally has no teaching assignment, and is expected to devote full-time effort to study and research. The department also generally awards four to five Computational Sciences Summer Research Fellowships (CSSRF) to doctoral candidates each summer, which provide stipends for full-time research for the eight weeks and additional funds to support travel to attend conferences and professional meetings.

Since application dates may change without notice, please consult the Graduate School web site for any official deadlines. In the past, the following deadlines have been employed:

• January 15 for fall session, file all materials by this date.
• April 15 for summer session, file all materials by this date. Other than Earl W. Swokowski Fellowships, summer financial aid is rarely available.
• November 15 for spring session, file all materials by this date.