RESEARCH APPRENTICESHIPS/GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIPS
All Ph.D. students are required to serve research apprenticeships. The research apprenticeship, a departmental requirement, is an integral element of the department's emphasis on training in research design and methods.
The research apprenticeship begins in the Ph.D. student's first semester in residence and continues for a minimum of four semesters, exclusive of summer sessions. Each Ph.D. student is assigned to work under the supervision of a faculty member as an apprentice scholar-researcher.
Service as a graduate assistant satisfies the program's research apprenticeship requirements. Assignments of Ph.D. graduate assistants to faculty supervisors will attempt, whenever possible, to link each student with a faculty member who specializes in one or more areas in which the student has expressed an interest, the objective of the research apprenticeship is to have the student serve as an apprentice scholar-researcher. In many instances a graduate assistant's faculty supervisor will become the student's academic advisor.
As decribed in the graduate assistant's letter of appointment and in the Benefits and Responsibilities information, which accompanies appointment letters, an assistant is required to perform her or his duties satisfactorily in order to retain the apprenticeship. Therefore, it is important that each graduate assistant understand clearly what her or his supervisor expects from the assistant.
The maximum time commitment involved in a research apprenticeship is 20 hours per week while classes are in session.
While certain faculty needs for graduate assistants with particular skills must be satisfied, a Ph.D. graduate assistant may request a change in assignment and supervisor if such a change is likely to serve their interests better. Normally, however, a graduate assistant is expected to remain in his or her current assignment for an entire academic year. The desire to change mentors should be first discussed with the Ph.D. coordinator.
University procedures do not permit the department to guarantee assistantships for more than a year at a time. Nevertheless, when the faculty admits a student to the Ph.D. program and awards a graduate assistantship, its intention is to renew the assistantship for a second year of study if the student reamins in good academic standing and performs his or her assistantship duties satisfactorily.
The department does not renew graduate assistantships for a fourth year. Although there are a few fellowships for which fourth year students are eligible, including the Maxwell Dissertation Fellowship, fourth year funding should not be assumed. You are strongly encouraged to apply for an external dissertation fellowship for your fourth year funding. Students are encouraged to look closely in their second and third year at available dissertation fellowships and to discuss possible fellowships with their faculty mentor.