Gradministrivia

Table of Contents

• 1. About:
• 2. Robotics Plan of Study
• 3. Assistanceship Requirements
  • 3.1. Alternate Courses
  • 3.2. Summary
• 4. Life After Quals
• 5. Internship/Co-op
• 6. Details/Example Expenses
• 7. External Links

About:

This page is supposed to have all the basic administrative info you need to function as a Tech grad student. If you need to know what courses you have to register for to get funding, or why you have a \$36 "rec fee" and a separate \$59 "student activities" fee (because wtf?), or how to pay these from GRA dollars in time to not have your course schedule canceled, read on:

Robotics Plan of Study

For the Robotics program, you will need to have your plan of study approved by the Committee. Find the form on T-Square, fill it out, and (as of Spring 2010) give it to Frank.

Assistanceship Requirements

There are a couple basic prerequisites for getting funding through a GRA/GTA, all revolving around staying registered as a full time student (12 hours). There are 2 ways to fill your schedule: audit hours and letter-grade hours. During fall and spring terms you can have at most 3 audit hours count towards your 12, but in the summer you can do 6 and 6. GRA/GTA (8998) count as audit hours, and it's recommended that PhD students register for 9 hours. The rest of the hours come from some combination of actual classes and "special problems" classes (8903), which are how you get credit for research you do with your advisor.
A good rule of thumb is to register for at least 3 hours of GRA/GTA and 3 hours of special problems in addition to whatever other courses you plan to take. If you're still under 12, full up the rest with 8903 hours.

Alternate Courses

Post-Quals

After passing quals you're eligible for 9000 instead of 8998, which is how the registrar/bursar knows to pay you at 1/2 time instead of 1/3.

Possible Change (Fall 2009)

I hear from alan that they're planning on revising the program to include an "8999" for students that have settled on an advisor but haven't passed quals yet. This would get around the need to fill out a special problems form every term.

Summary

• get a special problems form signed and submitted in time for course registration (unless they add 8999)
• take 3-9 hours of 8998/9000
• take some other classes or lots of 8903
• do all of this in time for the registrar to mark you eligible for payroll deduction before fee deadline
• once you can, go to the oscar page and request a payroll deduction (summer and fall) or webcheck (summer)

Life After Quals

After you pass the qualifier, you need to complete a CoC PhD Qualifier form (available from link at bottom of page). As of Spring 2010 this goes to Jessica Celestine. To register for dissertation hours, you need a CS 9000 permit form which comes from and goes to the same place.

Internship/Co-op

You can register for the co-op course when you are on internship in order to retain access to Tech facilities (library, gym, etc.) and have the internship listed on your transcript. The person to talk to is Ken Little. You will need to send him:

1. Signed Offer Letter
2. Signed Approval Letter from faculty (attached to page)
3. Address of company you are working for

Details/Example Expenses

You might also be wondering where the bizarre itemized expenses on your student account come from. I'll do my best to explain this below
Here's a quick break down of expenses for summer 09

The way this appears on my actual student account, along with the tuition stuff is as follows:

Several days ago, after I had my GRA and 8903 permission forms finished but BEFORE I'd registered for my courses, the credit for tuition wasn't there and my balance was listed as \$12,240. This sort of situation can prevent you from making deadlines, so it's important to be sure you register and get your paperwork done in time for stuff to clear before the fee deadline.

External Links

• CoC Forms