Graduate Funding
Financial assistance is available for teaching and research. This primarily comes in the form of a teaching assistantship, but some advanced students receive support from faculty grants.
Teaching Assistantships
A teaching assistantship includes a waiver of both resident and non-resident tuition for eligible credit hours during the academic year. The total of tuition waivers is limited to the number of hours in the degree program. (Students who held an assistantship in the immediate, preceding spring semester, who completed their entire assignments satisfactorily, and who are enrolled in at least 2 credit hours of eligible courses during the summer terms immediately following the qualifying spring appointment may receive a tuition waiver for those eligible credit hours even if they are not employed as graduate assistants during the summer terms.) Currently stipends for the academic year range from $18,261 to $21,222. Stipend enhancements are available for outstanding applicants. Stipends for summer support are available for some teaching assistants. A teaching assistantship also includes health insurance.
For full consideration, international students applying for a teaching assistantship should take the speaking section when they take the internet-based TOEFL (iBT).
Duties of teaching assistants vary. Students without teaching experience are not assigned direct teaching duties during the first semester. Instead, they receive training in being a teaching assistant. More advanced students may have reduced teaching loads.
Other Funding
In addition to the teaching assistantships, there are also fellowships available. Preference is given to students who plan ultimately to pursue a doctor's degree. Graduate students in the Department of Mathematics have also been very successful in receiving university fellowships, which usually are awarded after one or more years of study.
Each year the department gives a number of monetary awards for outstanding academic achievement and for excellent teaching.
If you have received a graduate assistant non-resident tuition waiver, your graduate spouse is eligible for a waiver of non-resident tuition. The spouse will need to complete the Spousal Graduate Tuition Waiver Form and return it to the Office of the Registrar at the beginning of each semester to receive the waiver. More information is available through OSU's Graduate College Resources.