Handbook for Doctoral Students in Education/Graduate Scholarships, Assistantships, and Assistantship Guidelines

= Graduate Scholarships, Assistantships and Assistantship Guidelines =

Graduate Dean’s Scholarship Program – New Incoming Graduate Students
The Graduate Dean’s Scholarship Program (GDSP) provides a flat amount to Doctoral students each Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. The awards are as follows. For Fall and Spring Semesters:

For Summer Semester (total for all Summer sessions)
 * Doctoral students enrolled in 9 or more credit hours will receive $1,000 per semester.
 * Doctoral students enrolled in a minimum of 9 hours will receive $1,000.

Eligibility Here’s how you qualify for this scholarship:


 * Be admitted to an eligible program prior to the start of the semester;
 * Be a new UNC graduate student for Fall 2008 or for a future semester and;
 * If enrolling in a Doctoral program, have a minimum graduate GPA of 3.2;

Graduate School Diversity Tuitionship (Tuition Assistance)
Must be a fully admitted graduate student without any other contract assignment; full-time (teaching assistantship, TA; graduate assistantship, GA or graduate research assistantship, GRA) assignment. Must be a member of under-represented group (racial/ethnic minority, gender if under-represented in discipline and/or at the degree level being pursued, a person with disabilities). Must meet minimum admission standards for degree level, enrolled in 9-10 hours and have a 3.0 grade point average. Faculty member will submit letter of nomination to the Graduate School. Award Amount Minimum award of $750; maximum award of $3,000; Non-renewable but may be given a new award each year; available in summer with prior approval by the Graduate Dean.

• Be enrolled in at least 3 credit hours for a Master’s student and at least 9 credit hours for a Doctoral student in Fall and Spring semesters;

• Be enrolled in at least 3 credit hours for a Master’s student; 9 credit hours for a Doctoral student over both or one of the Summer Sessions. Enrollment in Summer is optional.

Graduate Non-Resident
Fully admitted. Must be a non-resident student for tuition classification purposes (only eligible for first year of enrollment at UNC unless unable to qualify for resident status). Doctoral must have an admission grade point average of 3.5 (or higher) and must have GRE scores of at least 1000 if GRE is required. Must be enrolled in 9-10 hours. Min. $500. Only available for one full calendar year but may be offered for more than one year to students who cannot become residents, such as foreign students; maximum 6 semesters; available in summer with prior approval by Graduate Dean.

Summer Tuition Scholarship
Admitted to a graduate degree program, meeting minimum admissions standards (3.0 grade point average or better), enrolled in at least 6 hours. Priority will be given to students who are new students starting a degree program in the summer, students in “low-enrolled” graduate programs, first generation and need based students. $1000 doctoral.

UNC Foundation Scholarship
Must fill out a FASFA application through Financial Aid in order to be nominated for these awards. Contact Financial Aid Office regarding these scholarships.


 * 1) Richard and Chris Monfort Graduate Fellowship: Nominee qualifications: Full time graduate student, Colorado resident, shows academic performance and future potential. Renewable for 2 years.
 * 2) Flood and Peterson Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Full time graduate student; Colorado resident; show academic performance and future potential. Renewable for 2 years.
 * 3) Cross Family Memorial Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Awarded annually to a deserving students.
 * 4) Fleta Craig Memorial Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Awarded annually to an outstanding full-time student.
 * 5) Graduate Faculty Merit Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Admitted graduate students; masters or specialists, 3.25 GPA; doctoral, 3.5 GPA professional accomplishments.
 * 6) Living Memorial Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Awarded annually to an outstanding full-time graduate student – 1 award.
 * 7) Arthur and June Reynolds Graduate School Scholarship: Nominee qualifications: Full-time student, shall be enrolled in or accepted to the Graduate School and have satisfied their general requirements – 1 award.
 * 8) Arno H Luker Scholarship for the Benefit of Graduate Students Studying Psychology and/or Counseling: Nominee qualifications: Full-time graduate student in Psychology and/or counseling; 3.0 GPA.
 * 9) Violet Elliott. Stensen Education Award: Nominee Qualifications: Graduate Student in the College of Education & Behavioral Sciences in good academic standing.

Assistantships
If you are planning on being a full time doctoral student, an assistanship is the most realistic way of getting through the program. All assistantships come with a tuition waiver. Full time assistianships waive full tuition, half-time assistantships waive half tuition.

Graduate Assistantship (GA) with other units
Some Administrative Offices and other Schools on campus will hire graduate assistants. FOr Administrative assistantships, keep checking this site. Most of them are really good gigs, especially if you are unable to get an STE assistanship. Make sure you don't miss the deadlines. Most come on like over the SPring and Summer. As for other Schools' assistantships, those usually come with a specific requirements (for example, if you can teach Chinese in the School of Modern Languages), and most units prefer to give out assistantships to their own doctoral students.

Graduate Assistantship with STE
Each Spring, Graduate School allocates a certain number of assistantships to STE, some are full time, and others are half-time. Note, STE does not have pure research assistantships. All students in Ed.D. Educational Studies have both teaching and research responsibilities. This is done mainly for the sake of fairness. Each full time GA has to teach one class and complete 11 hours of research and administrative duties per week. In other words, in STE all students on assistanship are GA/TA. Summer Graduate Research Assistantship (SGRA) Stipend Award and Tuition if applicable. A full-time student enrolled in a UNC graduate program who is assigned to an individual faculty member or a group of faculty for the express purpose of assisting in defined aspects of a research project. UNC Faculty members who wish to conduct research projects during the summer term and will need the support of a graduate research assistant in that work. Summer Graduate Research Assistant (SGRA) awards provide funding to support the cost of a graduate research assistant. SGRA awards will be funded based on the GA FTE calculations and Minimum Stipends Grid for summer (13 weeks). A participating student may choose to be enrolled for no more than six credit hours in courses during the summer. Tuition support (up to six hours resident rate summer) will accompany

Eligibility Requirements for Teaching or Graduate Assistants


 * 1) The student must be admitted to a graduate degree program at UNC while maintaining good academic standing at UNC (at least a 3.0 grade point average) and not on academic probation.


 * 1) In order to be eligible for a tuition stipend, student must maintain full-time graduate status (enroll in 3-10 credit hours per semester) during the period of the appointment. Students enrolled for dissertation hours only will be allowed to hold an assistantship for a maximum of two (2) semesters provided they are enrolled for a minimum of (6) hours of dissertation each semester.


 * 1) Test of Spoken English (TSE) scores for International Teaching Assistants: International applicants for teaching assistantships at UNC who are not native speakers of English must submit Test of Spoken English (TSE) test scores of at least 50, in order to be considered for teaching assistantships. This score indicates that the individual’s communication in English is generally effective, as defined by the Educational Testing Services, which means that the communication task is performed completely, and the individual successfully uses compensatory strategies:


 * Functions generally are performed clearly and effectively;
 * Generally appropriate responses are given to audience/situation;
 * Coherent, with some effective use of cohesive devices;
 * Generally accurate pronunciation, grammar, fluency and vocabulary.

Departments may establish a higher standard. Such standards should be communicated to the Graduate School and interested applicants. These standards apply only to “teaching” assistants and not to graduate assistants and graduate research assistants who do not have classroom teaching responsibilities.


 * 1) GA/TA/GRA appointments is based upon full-time employment using a 20 hour work week over 17 weeks (15 week semester plus 1 week each before and after class) as the standard. Summer is based on 13 weeks to include one week prior and one week after. Stipend is calculated based on minimum GA/TA/GRA stipends and by degree levels.


 * 1) Students may not hold a single appointment or combination of appointments exceeding 20 hours a week for any semester, as that moves the student from a student status and is contrary to the intent of assistantships.


 * 1) Instructional Responsibilities for Teaching Assistants:

For the mutual benefit and protection of TA’s and students, every teaching assistant is obligated to share with students early in the term the following:

• Course objective

• The general strategy, topics, subject matter, materials, and tasks to be employed to meet those objectives

• A list of tentative deadlines for accomplishment of assigned tasks. Lead time commensurate with the task should be provided.

• The method, criteria and weight to be applied to each criterion in determining final grade

Compensation

1. The University has established a standard base salary schedule setting a minimum level of pay for all TA/GA/GRA positions.

2. TA, GA and GRA appointments of 16 – 20 hours a week during a semester receive full tuition assistance during that semester. Those appointed 8 – 15 hours a week receive one-half tuition assistance and those appointed for 3 – 7 hours a week are not eligible for tuition assistance during that semester. Tuition is based on a per credit hour basis. The Graduate School will pay tuition from 3-10 credit hours per semester. Over 10 hours will be the responsibility of the student. Eligible students will receive non-resident tuition for their first year of enrollment only. For subsequent years, only in-state tuition assistance will be given. Any exceptions to this policy must be requested in writing and approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

3. The student will be responsible for all charges http://www.unco.edu/grad/forms/GATAGuidelines.pdf