General Information About Graduate Student Appointments
Admission to the Graduate College
All graduate students admitted to the Physics Department, will also automatically become members of the Graduate College of the University. Your admission will not be completely finalized until you provide your final transcript showing that you satisfactorily completed your undergraduate studies and obtained a bachelor's degree, if you completed your degree over the summer. Before formalizing your admission, the University's Graduate and Professorional Admissions Unit will ask you to submit a terminal transcript and evidence of graduation. The Department of Physics forwards to the Admissions Unit the credentials of all those accepting our offer of admission. The Admissions Unit then issues a formal "Notice of Admission" and appropriate paperwork, including the I-20 form. It may take some time for that notice of admission to arrive, but it is usually only a formality.
Appointment
Graduate students, or junior staff, will be assigned office space to work, study, and advise students, 24-hour building and library privileges, and other services that will assist in teaching and research duties. Teaching or Research Assistants will receive nine equal checks for the academic year (August - May) starting September 16, with the final check distributed on May 16. Summer appointments run for two months to equal the eleven months of student payment (nine months for academic year, plus two months of summer). Fellowship appointments vary depending on the fellowship type. Students on a fellowship should receive information from the Graduate College Fellowship Office regarding the specifics of your fellowship.
Except for some fellowships and a few other special cases, new graduate students have appointments as teaching assistants (TAs). Most Ph.D. candidates receive research assistantships (RAs) when they reach the stage of doing research for their theses, which usually comes after one or two years of graduate course work.
Summer Appointment
Generally, all graduate physics students making satisfactory progress find support within the department during the summer. A few teaching or research assistantships may be available in the summer preceding a student's entrance to graduate school. Summer appointments are usually written for two months, with the same monthly stipend as the academic year. After the third year, most students have 11-month research appointments.
Housing and Community Information
Married assistants may apply for housing in University-owned apartments . There is also a good supply of private apartments in Champaign and Urbana. A single man or woman may apply for a room in one of the graduate dormitories . (Daniels Hall is a graduate student dormitory adjacent to Loomis Laboratory.) On-line applications for all University housing are available or you may contact the housing office directly by sending e-mail to housing@illinois.edu or calling 217-333-7111.
Duties of Teaching Assistants
Domestic students and international students who have passed the SPEAK test or TOEFL speaking section, will generally be given a 100-200 level classroom teaching assignment, consisting of laboratory or discussion sections. With the standard "50%" (i.e. half-time) appointment, the teaching load will consist of approximately eight-ten contact classroom hours per week and two-four hours of staff meetings and office hours. Teaching Assistants on "25%" (quarter-time) appointment have roughly half the above teaching load. Incoming international students who have not passed the SPEAK test or the speaking section of the TOEFL, will typically be given a grading assignment. They are required to pass the SPEAK test within their first year in order to receive a TA position in later years. In addition, all students who will be teaching for the first time at UIUC, must attend the required orientation programs.
Be sure to fill out the relevant web forms to let us know your course teaching preferences .
We offer five general 100-200 level physics courses:
101 -College Physics, Mech & Heat |
102 - College Physics, E&M & Modern |
211 - Univ Physics, Mechanics |
212 - Univ Physics, Elec & Mag |
213 - Univ Physics, Thermal Physics(half term, with the same staff as 214) |
214 - Univ Physics, Quantum Phys (half term, with the same staff as 213) |
The teaching job is a serious obligation. We consider that learning pedagogical skills is an integral part of the process of earning graduate degrees in physics. Responsible and conscientious performance as a teaching assistant is important in establishing a student's reputation in the department and can be of considerable value when he or she selects a thesis supervisor.