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An important difference between undergraduate and graduate study is that
quite frequently a university pays graduate students to go to school,
not the other way around.
The primary sources of support are (a) graduate teaching assistantships;
(b) graduate research assistantships; and (c) fellowships. Some 15 of
our full-time graduate students are currently supported by one of these
means. All of these provide a stipend and a full waiver of tuition. Students
are required to pay their own fees (fees, including medical insurance
and a technology surcharge, for academic year 2007-08 were approximately
$1,018 per semester).
Doctoral students in our program spend at least one semester as an
intern, usually in a govermental or industrial research laboratory. In
some cases the laboratory which is hosting the student is able to
provide a salary, as an alternative to an appointment as a graduate
assistant.
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Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs).
The division employs about
15 graduate students in this role. A GTA is expected to work about 20
hours/week. A typical assignment would be something like this: In a
lower level course (say, STAT 208, or STAT 301), a professor would
lecture to approximately 60 students three times a week. The 60 students are broken down into two recitation sections of 30 students each. A GTA will meet with three of these recitation sections once a week to answer questions, go over
homework problems, give quizzes, etc. The GTA will also hold four office
hours per week to provide assistance to students. The GTA thus spends three
hours conducting recitation sections, four hours meeting students in
his/her office, and between nine and 13 hours preparing for the recitation and scoring
homeworks and other relevant duties, for a total of 20 hours/week.
There are other types of GTA assignments as well. Some GTAs will serve
as a grader for a statistics course (including some junior and senior
level courses). Experienced GTAs are given the opportunity to teach
their own section of STAT 208 or 301 with about 30 students. Many of our GTAs
actively seek this opportunity to develop their skills and relate to
younger students in the classroom setting.
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Graduate research assistants (GRAs).
Some members of our faculty are actively engaged in research, and many of them welcome assistance from graduate students in this work. Each semester about four to five graduate students are assigned to Statistical Consulting Services
where they help the faculty consultant in solving applied statistical
and real-life problems coming from clients from within the university or
businesses from DeKalb and the greater Chicagoland area. Advanced
doctoral students in the division become full partners in research with
their professors, and can sometimes be appointed as GRAs while they
work on their dissertations.
If you are interested in an assistantship with the Division of
Statistics you must submit an Appliction for Assistantship found on the
Some members of our faculty are actively engaged in research, and many of them welcome assistance from graduate students in this work. Each semester about four to five graduate students are assigned to Statistical Consulting Services
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Fellowship holders.
Northern Illinois University offers fellowships on a competitive basis to outstanding entering students at
the masters level and also to advanced students who are completing their
doctoral dissertations. There are several very attractive fellowship
programs for minority students as well. Fellowships allow the student
to devote full-time to graduate study, since there are not duties
connected with them. Typically, a fellowship recipient will take four
courses (12 credit hours), while a GTA will take three courses (nine credit
hours).
You may want to visit the
Graduate School's Fellowships web page or the
Office of Sponsored
Projects site at.
Fellowships awarded in national competitions (e.g., by the Department of
Defense or the National Science Foundation) can also be used to support
graduate study at NIU.
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Level of stipends.
For the 2008-08 academic year, the full-time (20 hours per week) stipends for GTAs and GRAs range from $1,250/month to $1,600/month for nine months, depending on the level of experience and the kind of assignment which is undertaken. The stipends for fellowships range from $6,000 (this may be augmented by a 1/2-time appointment as a teaching assistant) to $18,000 for the academic year. A limited number of summer assistantships are also
available on a competitive basis. The full-time stipends for Summer 2008 GAs range from $900 to $1,200 per month. Many of our M.S. students do spend their summer working as interns in various companies and businesses around the greater
Chicagoland. |
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Doctoral students in our program spend at least one semester as an
intern, usually in a govermental or industrial research laboratory. In
some cases the laboratory which is hosting the student is able to
provide a salary, as an alternative to an appointment as a graduate
assistant.
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