Mathematics Graduate Program
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I Initial appointment
Ordinarily, only admitted doctoral students in the Graduate Program in Mathematics will be eligible for an appointment as a Teaching Assistant (TA) or Graduate Assistant (GA) in Mathematics.
For students not currently at Rutgers, admission and initial support decisions are made on the basis of course work at other institutions, general and subject GRE's, letters of recommendation, and personal statements. Other relevant information may also be considered. Students whose native language is not English must supply evidence of competence in written and spoken English. The duties of an initial appointment as a TA may only be grading.
Criteria for an initial appointment as a TA or GA for students at Rutgers combine admissions information together with appropriate parts of the reappointment standards discussed below.
II Reappointment
Candidates for reappointment are judged on a combination of instructional competence (for TA's) and scholarly progress (for both TA's and GA's). Reappointment is always subject to availability of funds.
A. Instructional competence
Students whose native language is not English may need proof of competence in English at an appropriate level. Such competence is ordinarily assessed by the Rutgers ESL program. Reappointment as a TA generally requires work as a classroom instructor. Such appointments cannot be made until ESL has certified that the candidate possesses adequate competence in oral English (both speaking and understanding the spoken language). In some cases ESL will grant provisional certification conditioned on continuing work in their courses.
An initial appointment involving work as a classroom instructor must be preceded by successful completion of the Department's TA Training Program, or by equivalent training and adequate performance elsewhere.
Adequate current performance in either grading or teaching assignments is required for reappointment.
B. Scholarly progress
Year 1
Satisfactory progress for a first year graduate student should include
good performance in courses (grades less than B are poor, and
generally grades of B+ or A are satisfactory). If most of a student's
work is in advanced courses or rotations which offer only pro forma
grades, additional criteria may be used -- for example, certification
by faculty members of active and satisfactory participation in these
courses. Students who have not taken and passed the written
comprehensive exam during their first year of study here should show
signs that they are preparing to take it by the beginning of the
second year. Students may be put on the waiting list for support,
subject to future assessment and possible denial of support, if their
performance up to the time of initial support decisions is not
encouraging.
Year 2
Satisfactory progress for a second year graduate student should
include doing well in courses (grades less than B are poor, and
generally grades of B+ or A are satisfactory) and, ordinarily, having
passed the written exam. If most of a student's work is in advanced
courses or rotations which offer only pro forma grades, additional
criteria may be used -- for example, certification by faculty members
of active and satisfactory participation in these courses. Students
who have not already taken and passed the oral exam should ideally
also show signs that they are preparing to take this exam sometime
during the third year of study here. Students may be put on the
waiting list for support, subject to future assessment and possible
denial of support, if their performance up to the time of initial
support decisions is not encouraging.
Year 3 and beyond
Satisfactory progress for students in their third year or beyond
should certainly include passing the oral exam by December of the third
year. Students may be put on the waiting list for support, subject to
future assessment and possible denial of support, if this has not been
done. Students who have taken and passed the oral exam should be
making progress towards completion of the Ph.D.; such progress should
include choice of a thesis area and an advisor, and satisfying the
criteria for "Candidacy for the Ph.D." Departmental evaluation of
further progress will depend primarily on the assessment of the
student's thesis advisor.
Ordinarily we hope to extend TA support to students making satisfactory progress at least through the end of five years of study here. Beyond that we will consider each student individually and may need to put some students on the waiting list for support, with the eventual support decision to be based on resources available.
C. Satisfactory course load
There is a distinction to be made between what the Math Department expects students to take in order to maintain "satisfactory progress" towards the degree and the legal notion (for US VISA purposes only) of "full-time status.
Students in the first three years of graduate school are expected to
be taking 9 credits per semester of coursework/research in addition to
a 6-credit Assistantship (Teaching or other) - for a total of
15 credits per semester.
For students who are past their oral quals, and admitted for candidacy, "making
satisfactory progress" is measured differently. Students who have passed
the orals so quickly that they haven't yet accumulated 48 course credits
should talk to the Graduate Director. Other students, who have a good idea
of when they will graduate, can adjust their
research credits accordingly; a lower limit may be reasonable.