The Department of Geoscience provides guaranteed support in the form of fellowships, research assistantships, project assistantships, or teaching assistantships to those students who successfully compete in a selection process that occurs early every spring semester.
We offer funding guarantees up to 4 academic years (8 semesters) based on continued good standing in the program as well as summer funding for the first year. Support in the form of semester or year-long appointments as research, project, or teaching assistantships may also be available to those not receiving a long-term guarantee.
The majority of students hold a teaching assistantship (TA) or a research assistantship (RA) funded by research grants. In addition the department awards a number of prestigious Weeks Research Assistantships to incoming graduate students with exceptionally strong records.
Funding Policy & Resources
Criteria for hiring Geoscience Teaching Assistants
Faculty Document 2008-02
All departmental graduate students and, in some cases, graduate students in other departments are eligible for consideration for departmental teaching assistantships provided that they 1) are in good academic standing, 2) have suitable background in the subject matter of the course for which they would serve as a teaching assistant, and 3) satisfy the department standards for English proficiency for TAs. Criteria that are used in selecting among qualified candidates are the following:
- commitments for support (guarantees)
- the particular needs of the department in terms of specific courses
- prior experience in teaching with evidence of success
- progress in the graduate program
- amount of previous support for graduate study
Criteria for students who do not have a degree in Geology
a. A graduate student with no geology courses must take G202 and G204 before becoming a TA for 100-level geology courses.
b. A student who has taken a 100-level geology course but not the equivalent of Geology 202 and Geology 204, can TA a 100-level course during the first semester of graduate school at UW–Madison provided the student enrolls, concurrently, in any remaining required courses (Geology 202 and/or Geology 204, depending on what other geology courses the student has previously completed).
c. In the case of an incoming graduate student who has not satisfied the requirements for completion of or concurrent registration in Geology 202 and 204 (or equivalent), she/he may be eligible to TA for a particular course in a given semester if the course instructor requests that graduate student as the TA for the course. For example, graduate students with a strong background in biological sciences may be considered for teaching assistantships in Geology 107, Life of the Past, or Geology 110, Evolution and Extinction. Additional subject matter background in specific areas of geology and geophysics is required for teaching assistants in most intermediate and advanced level courses.
Temporary eligibility to serve as a teaching assistant can be approved by the graduate studies committee on a semester-by-semester basis in cases where a graduate student has completed some, but not all, of the courses in the approved sequence for subject matter background. In such cases, the teaching assistant would also be required to be concurrently enrolled in one or more of the remaining courses in the approved sequence.
Rev. 4/16/08 (replaces Faculty Document 2007-11)