Financial Support

Financial support is guaranteed for five years to students making satisfactory progress. Students receive full tuition, a stipend, and individual health coverage. Support is in the form of:

• fellowships
• teaching assistantships
• research assistantships

Teaching assistants either teach recitation sections or grade papers for more advanced courses. Both jobs are paid at the same rate, and both require about 12 hours per week.

Stipends

In academic year 2012 – 13 stipends for assistantships are $2,650 per month for nine months (Sept 1 – May 31) and include individual health coverage for 12 months. Some additional financial support is available during the summer. See summer support.

Outside Support

Students are encouraged to seek outside fellowships and grants. We do not require students to begin fellowships in their first year in our graduate program (but the granting agency may have such a requirement).

If the total stipend plus tuition X provided by the fellowship in a fall or spring semester is lower than the standard stipend plus tuition S that our department offers its students without outside fellowships, then the department provides the student an amount Y so that after tuition is paid, the student receives a stipend equal to the standard stipend. (IRS regulations may require the department's contribution to tuition to be partially taxable, in which case Y is increased slightly beyond S-X to counteract those taxes.) The teaching assistantship load of each student in each semester after year 1 is the fraction Y/S of the usual load. For example, as of 2012, an NSF graduate fellowship provides a little over 50% of what is required, so an NSF graduate fellow can expect to serve as a teaching assistant during two of the six semseters of the fellowship and also occasionally help with minor duties such as exam proctoring.

Travel Support

Every mathematics graduate student who has passed the qualifying exam is eligible for an annual allowance towards conference travel. Details of the policy are available here.