Coming to the most wanted topic (This section is only for students admitted without financial assistance - if you already have aid, then party!!) A lot is usually speculated about the financial aid scene at UIC. Many students in the past have turned up without being ready to pay their first semester tuition, hoping to get aid for sure. This has often led to cases in which students get stranded after more than a month's strenuous hunting around campus. So we think it is our responsibility to give you sufficient warning in advance. We strongly recommend that you don't come here if you are not prepared to pay your first and probably the second semester fees. There are really NO guarantees about financial aid and the decision is completely yours if you would like to take a risk.
In the last 5 years, the financial aid situation in UIC has been pretty decent. Around 10-20% of the incoming students have obtained some form of assistantships in India and another 60%-70% within a month after coming to US. When more number of students turn up, then a lot of them are going to be left without financial aid. Since the tuition fees in UIC are quite high, it's a gamble which a new student takes to come and search for an assistantship. No one can really promise or guarantee aid after landing here.
We highly recommend you to be in Chicago at least 20-25 days in advance (before the semester starts) if you are considering looking for assistantships at UIC. Typically the early the better. Also, keep a copy of your resume ready. You'll need it immediately. After landing here, typically students without funding go through a big and strenuous phase for 1.5 months of giving out resumes in various departments in the University. Since the campus is quite widely spread (around 2 miles east - west), students have to face the hardship of going to different departments in search of aid. Then they would have to attend interviews for the positions. This is a phase which students typically don't like but would have to go through in order to try to get aid. A combination of hard work of handing out resumes at various places, following them up regularly and quite a bit of luck (being at the right place at the right moment) would land you up with an assistantships. The mere fact that it's a new place, away from home compounds to the search and makes a bit difficult. All the students who are currently studying have gone through it and we are sure it's just a matter of time for you to get adjusted. Once you get aid, you are all set and go around Chicago / visit relatives and enjoy the days till the school begins.
Students have obtained assistantships as early as one day but typically it takes around 15-20 days to get one. Also there are quite a few of them who do not get assistantships with all the hard work and have to deal with paying the huge amount of fees. IGSA will be here to help you with the right directions and make sure you have a smooth transition.
General form of assistantships are:Research Assistantship
Research assistants work directly under the concerned professor. The appointment may be 25% (10 hrs/week) or 50% (20 hrs/week), but these time constraints may vary from professor to professor. The student has to directly contact the professor whom he or she would like to work under.
- Abstain from mailing all the professors in the department (we agree that you would be anxious to make an assistantship), the reason behind this is if the Prof. is discussing your application with some other professor and that other prof also has your identical app. It would create a very bad impression as he or she would feel that you are not genuine in your request.
- Visit the homepage for each professor and carefully select the professor whose research interests closely matches yours. Read up on the research they have done and if possible read a couple of their research papers too.
- In general in most engineering departments most profs would expect you to take at least 1 or 2 courses with them evaluate you and only then offer you an RA. If you hope to get an RA straight from India either you are too lucky/bright or totally ignorant(read dumb) with regards to these matters.
- A rule of thumb, PhD people have a better chances of getting an RA than MS candidates.
Teaching Assistantship
A teaching assistantship (50% time, 20 hours per week) normally involves teaching the laboratory sections of courses and grading homework assignments for undergraduate courses each semester. MS Students for certain department are not eligible for a TA position. A TA can be expected to work for more than one courses in certain departments. The time and effort spent in assisting in higher level courses varies, and teaching loads are adjusted accordingly. In addition to normal classroom and grading duties, a TA is expected to:
- Hold office hours for students seeking help, and post and announce to her/his classes a schedule of office hours every semester.
- Attend a weekly TA meeting with the lecturer.
- Grade homework assignments.
- Proctor and grade mid-term and final exams if required by the lecturer.
- Put the lab in order at the end of each class.
- Assist in keeping the teaching labs and materials secure from theft or mutilation.
The amount of responsibility a faculty member assigns to a TA varies. In most undergraduate level classes, the TA has sole authority in determining the lab and homework grades. It is always the responsibility of the professor to assign final grades. In no case is a TA allowed to change a lab or discussion grade or allow a student to do work after the course is completed, in order to change a lab or quiz grade, without the express prior consent of the instructor. In all cases, instructors, not the TAs, determine class policies.
We expect all TAs to take their teaching responsibilities seriously. Poor performance (or misconduct) as a TA can lead to a reduction or revocation of financial support. An annual award is given by the department to the best TA.
Graduate Assistantship
Most of the students are Graduate Assistants (GA). Don't get confused between Graduate Assistantship and Graduate Research Assistantship; they mean the same thing. They work for different departments in the University and get a full tuition waiver + monthly stipend depending on the number of hours they work.
There are usually two types of graduate assistantships - a 25% GA, in which you work for 10 hours a week, earning a stipend of around $650/month and a 50% GA, wherein you have to work for 20 hours a week and earn around $1200/month after tax. (these amounts are averages and is what paid at most of the places).
The kind of work a GA does
A typical GA works as a web designer (developing home pages/departmental pages, etc), or working for the computer support, as a system administrator. These jobs are not tough and don't require you to learn a lot. A reasonable exposure to computers might be required. (If you don't have it, get it before you come here). It gives you that added edge over others.
By reasonable exposure we mean you should be familiar with
- HTML tools like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Netscape Composer etc
- Some database management system (MS Access, Paradox PHP-MySQL and SQL Server 7 are used in most of the places)
- Network administration (mostly Windows/Unix administration)
- Graphic tools like Fireworks, PhotoShop and CorelDraw
- Knowledge of writing CGI/Perl scripts, JAVA, familiarity with net-database connectivity
- Knowing statistic packages like SPSS or SAS may also be useful.
You need not know all of these, but at least a few is required by most of the graduate assistantships. Spend some time with your geek friends and ask them if you are not familiar with anything in this list. Just the basics. No one will question you about anything technical but once you get some work to do, they can judge.
One suggestion take some pains to look at the resume posted in the files section of our yahoo group and understand how to prepare one nicely. When you come here have a decent template, we will help you build a decent one to take around.
Few tips on the GA Hunt
GA Hunt as it is called here is the process of grabbing a UIC map and going to every other building that is affiliate with UIC by some remote chance, from admissions department to the police center and giving your resume. Be polite. Dress in decent clothes and present yourself. Don't be rude even if they act rude to you. It is a phase of transition that you go through and just walk around with a smile. Almost 90% of us here did it and we got through. So just accept it and go for it.
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