Applicants interested in being considered for fellowship and\/or assistantship opportunities for the Fall term, must have a complete online application with required supporting documents by no later than the priority application deadline of January 15th (or December 1st for international PhD applicants and applicants to the Planetary and Space Sciences PhD or Planetary Sciences Track programs). The Department of Physics does not generally offer assistantship opportunities for the Spring term.<\/p>\n
Additional information about funding options can be found here.<\/a><\/p>\n Note: Students interested in Access to Opportunities (A2O) Scholarships may click here<\/a> for access to the application portal.<\/p>\n Assistantship opportunities may be available as a Graduate Teaching Assistant<\/strong> <\/a>(GTA) or Graduate Research Assistant (GRA). As of Fall 2025, GTAs receive an annual stipend of $28,362 (Note: The annual stipend as of Fall 2026 will be $29,990). The annual stipends for current doctoral students that are hired as GRAs varies depending on advisor funds.\u00a0 As of Fall 2025, the minimum annual stipend for a Physics PhD student hired as a full-time GRA is $30,000 (Note: The minimum annual stipend for Physics student GRAs as of Fall 2026 will be $32,000). GRA agreements for less than a year would be paid at this same rate, prorated for the duration of the agreement.\u00a0 As of Fall 2025, the minimum annual stipend for a Planetary Sciences Track PhD student hired as a full-time GRA is $36,863 (Note: As of Fall 2026, the minimum annual stipend for student GRAs in the Planetary and Space Sciences PhD will be $37,970.)<\/p>\n The financial rewards of a GTA position are only part of the story. You\u2019ll gain valuable experience in and out of the classroom and have the opportunity to interact closely with faculty members in your department. The relationships you develop with your professors are crucial to your future success. Therefore, working with them more closely, as colleagues of a sort, can help you to establish yourself and become better known within the department.<\/p>\n A teaching assistantship is no \u201cfree ride\u201d of course. While the duties of a TA will vary, you can expect to be responsible for one or more of the following:<\/p>\n If you plan to pursue an academic career, testing the waters as a GTA can prove to be an invaluable learning experience where you can gain some practical on-the-job skills. Even if your career path will take you beyond the ivory tower, the position can still be excellent way to pay your way through graduate school, develop leadership skills, and get some great experience.<\/p>\n The faculty<\/strong><\/a> in the Department of Physics offer several GRA positions. Some of these positions are filled with incoming students, but most students start in the Physics PhD program as GTAs. Typically, after a year as a GTA, students find an advisor who financially supports them through a GRA position that may (or may not) include fee coverage. As a GRA you are conducting research, which ultimately leads to a doctoral dissertation or master\u2019s thesis.<\/p>\n We expect that students and their advisors present their research at conferences and publish in peer-reviewed journals.\u00a0In addition,\u00a0faculty in research centers like NSTC<\/strong><\/a>, FSI<\/strong><\/a>, AMPAC<\/strong><\/a> and CREOL<\/strong> <\/a>often work with Physics students as GRAs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Applicants interested in being considered for fellowship and\/or assistantship opportunities for the Fall term, must have a complete online application with required supporting documents by no later than the priority application deadline of January 15th (or December 1st for international PhD applicants and applicants to the Planetary and Space Sciences PhD or Planetary Sciences Track […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":5853,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-284","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n\n