Resources for PhD Students

In 2023, there were significant changes made to the PhD handbook that would impact the structure of the PhD program, so students who were admitted before 2023 are able to remain on the old version or they can opt into the new one, but students admitted after 2023 must refer to the new one.

If you're a student who was admitted before 2023 and you'd like to opt into the new handbook, email the Director of Graduate Studies.

You need 90 credits total to complete your degree. The required coursework, which can be found in the PhD handbook, adds up to 48 credits. So, the remaining 42 credits can be any combination of research credits, supervised teaching credits, independent studies, elective courses, etc.

Yes, to receive credit for a teaching assistantship, you must register for LING 590 Supervised Teaching with the instructor you're a TA for. If a section doesn't exist for the instructor you need, email the department manager who can create a section for you to register for.

PhD students will not receive compensation for being a TA as it's a program requirement to TA twice and they're already provided a stipend and full tuition coverage. PhD students will be given priority over master's students when it comes to assigning TAs.

Courses you'd register for with your advisor as the instructor include LING 591 PhD Reading in Linguistics and LING 595 PhD Research in Linguistics.

The only courses you'd register for with the DGS as the instructor, regardless of who your advisor is are placeholder courses including LING 999 Doctoral Dissertation.

More information on placeholder policies can be found in the policies section above.

Each PhD student must complete two QPs before they can move on to preparing their dissertation.

Yes and no.

Your stipend is distributed across 12 months, so you will continue to receive it in the summer; however, if you are the recipient of a Provost or Sproull Fellowship, the additional money you receive from that fellowship will end on June 30 every year (because those fellowships can only be disbursed during the academic year), and your July and August payments will be smaller.

Within the first five years of the program, the dissertation fee/tuition for LING 999 is fully covered by the student’s funding package. Beyond the fifth year, the student is responsible for paying the dissertation fee/tuition associated with LING 999.

GEPA firmly only allows PhD stipend funding and tuition coverage for five years. After that period, the financial package expires and PhD students must cover their own expenses.

It's not common practice for the department to cover dissertation fees after the initial five years, and it's expected that students will seek external funding for any year past the fifth one.

PhD funding packages last five full academic years. GEPA doesn't allow any exceptions for funding to be extended past the five years.

If you receive external funding within the first five years, that doesn't mean because the university isn't paying you that you can make up for those years afterwards. (i.e. if you receive a year of external funding during the first five years, you can't receive a year of university funding after the five years to make up for missing out on that one year of university funding.)

If you want funding for an additional year, you'd either have to get an extension on the external funding you received in your first five years when the time comes or try to find other external funding.

Indirect academic expenses are any research or academic related expenses other than tuition scholarships, stipends, or health insurance. For example, conference travel.

Any student may be reimbursed for indirect academic expenses if they have grant funding and the expenses are deemed appropriate for the grant to cover.

For students without grant funding:

• PhD students may be reimbursed by the department for indirect academic expenses up to a certain amount (confirm this amount with the department manager). This is not a yearly amount that replenishes.
• Master's students are not eligible for reimbursement by the department. It's possible for an advisor to cover the expenses from one of their accounts if the student asks and receives permission from their advisor.