GRADUATE
ASSISTANTSHIPS
The
department offers financial support in the pursuit of graduate
degrees in the form of graduate assistantships. The large majority
of these are teaching assistantships in the First-Year Composition
program. Occasionally, a few appointments are available for graduate
research assistants, who are assigned to assist individual faculty
members with specific research projects. Editorial assistantships
are also available on a competitive basis to doctoral students to
work with the professional journal Style, published in the
English department.
Graduate
students in the M.A. or Ph.D. programs who have not previously
taught at the college level are appointed as Teaching Interns and
are required to take ENGL 500 College Teaching of English. ENGL 500
is a course in the pedagogy of teaching freshman rhetoric and
composition and is taken during both semesters of the first year of
appointment as a teaching assistant.
Applications:
Application
for assistantships is made to the Director of Graduate Studies by 15
February each year. The Admissions and Standards subcommittee of the
Graduate Studies Committee considers both applications for admission
and for assistantships at the same time, so if an applicant's
admission credentials are incomplete, a decision on an assistantship
will be delayed. If students have qualifications for admission to
either a master's or doctoral program, they usually qualify for a
graduate assistantship as well.
Requirements
for appointment as an assistant:
- Admission
to a degree program in English.
- Minimum
verbal score on the GRE exam of 550. (Exceptions can be made only
in extraordinary circumstances.)
Offers
of assistantship appointments are made by 1 April for the nine
months of the academic year which begins the following August.
For
International Students:
Because
graduate assistantships are primarily devoted to the teaching of
First-Year Composition, the department generally makes no
appointments of non-native speakers of English in their first year
in the department. International students who wish to teach in the
Department of English and whose native language is not English must
take the Test of Spoken English and score 250 or better on that test
to teach in the department.
Renewal
of Appointment:
As
long as students make satisfactory progress toward their degrees and
perform their teaching duties satisfactorily, assistantships are
routinely renewable for the following year. Students in the M.A.
program may receive assistantships for two years; students in the
Ph.D. program for five years.
Teaching
Assignments:
Graduate
assistants may teach in a variety of courses at the freshman and
sophomore levels, though the predominant assignment is in English
103 and 104, the 6-hour sequence of courses in rhetoric and
composition required of all students in the university. Other
assignments include sections of Communication Skills and English as
a Second Language sections in English 103, English 105 and 105
Honors for advanced freshmen, the Communication Skills laboratory,
the ESL Clinic, the Writing Center, English 207 Practical Grammar,
and English 250 Practical Writing. Assignments are made jointly by
the Director of Graduate Studies and either the First- Year
Composition Director, or the Director of Undergraduate Studies. The
categories and terms of assistantship appointments are as follows:
Teaching
Assistants:
a) Interns
(TIs: students without teaching experience at the college level):
Contract:
9 months
Teaching
duties: 1 course of first-year composition fall semester and 2
spring semester
Required
enrollment in ENGL 500: two terms (6 hours credit; 3 or 6 toward
degree depending on program track)
Required
enrollment in additional graduate courses: 2 courses/6 hours
each term (fall and spring semesters)
Stipend:
Tuition waiver for the academic year, tuition waiver for the summer
term immediately preceding or following, and a yearly stipend.
b) Teaching
Assistants in the M.A. program (TAs: students with teaching
experience at the college level):
Contract:
9 months
Teaching
duties: normally 2 courses fall semester and 1 course spring
semester
Required
enrollment in graduate courses: 3 courses/9 hours each term
(fall and spring semesters)
Stipend:
Tuition waiver for the academic year, tuition waiver for the summer
term immediately preceding or following, and a yearly stipend.
c) Teaching
Assistants in the Ph.D. program (TA I, II, III, IV, V: students with
teaching experience at the college level):
Contract:
9 months
Teaching
duties: normally 2 courses fall and spring semesters
Required
enrollment in graduate courses: 3 courses/9 hours each term
(fall and spring semesters)
Stipend:
Tuition waiver for the academic year, tuition waiver for the summer
term immediately preceding or following, and a yearly stipend.
Research
Assistants (RAs):
Contract:
11 months
Duties:
Up to 20 hours per week (10 hours in the 8-week summer term),
chiefly in connection with staff members' research or as an
editorial assistant for one of the department's journals.
Required
enrollment in graduate courses: 3 courses each
term; 2 courses in the 8-week summer term.
Stipend:
Tuition waiver for the academic year, tuition waiver for the summer
term immediately preceding or following, and a yearly stipend.
Reappointment
as a Graduate Assistant is dependent upon the student's making
satisfactory progress toward the degree. The minimum requirements
for such progress are:
Minimum requirements for first appointment in the M.A. program:
• Admission to Graduate School
Minimum requirements for second appointment in the M.A. program:
Completion
of the hours stipulated in the appointment with a GPA of at least
3.0
Successful
completion of ENGL 500 (if required)
Submission
of an approved program of study
Satisfactory
performance of assigned research or editorial duties
Minimum
requirements for first appointment in the Ph.D. program:
Admission
to the Graduate School
Recommendation
of the Graduate Admissions Committee
Completion
of the M.A. or waiver of the M.A. for those going directly into the
Ph.D. program from the B.A.
Minimum requirements for second appointment in the Ph.D. program:
Completion
of the hours stipulated in the appointment with a satisfactory GPA
Submission
of an approved program of study
Satisfactory
performance of assigned research or editorial duties
Minimum requirements for third appointment in the Ph.D. program:
Completion
of hours stipulated in the appointment with satisfactory GPA
Revision
of program of study, if necessary
Satisfactory
performance of assigned research or editorial duties
Minimum requirements for fourth appointment in the Ph.D. program:
Completion
of course work for the Ph.D. with satisfactory GPA
Satisfaction
of the language requirement
Satisfactory
performance of assigned research or editorial duties
Minimum
requirements for fifth appointment in the Ph.D. program:
Approval
of prospectus, topic, and dissertation director
A
passing grade on the candidacy examinations by the end of the
spring semester
Admission
to candidacy
Satisfactory
performance of assigned research or editorial duties
Occasionally,
other non-academic cost centers of the university (for example, the
Library or Student Housing) employ graduate students through
graduate assistantships. A list of such centers is available from
the Graduate School.
Fellowships
The
department and the university offer several types of fellowships.
All offer stipends and carry a 12-month tuition waiver. Fellows are
full-time students. They are not required to teach or do any work in
the department, although they may choose to teach one course.
a)
University Fellowship for beginning M.A. candidates: students
receive a 12-month tuition waiver and a stipend; they must take 4
courses each term during fall and winter (summer courses optional).
University Fellowship for second-year M.A. candidates: students
receive a 12-month tuition waiver and a stipend; they must take 3
courses each term during fall and winter (summer courses optional).
b) Dissertation
Completion Award for advanced Ph.D. candidates: students receive a
12-month tuition waiver, a stipend, and a research support fund of
$500; they are to spend this year completing the dissertation
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