Enhanced Graduate Teaching Fellowship

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Process for Award of Graduate Doctoral Teaching Fellowships and Graduate Master's Teaching Fellowships AY 2010-11

Beginning in Fall 2010, a select number of doctoral and doctoral-bound students will be offered a financial support package consisting of an enhanced GTA stipend and a full tuition fellowship.

The new enhanced stipend and full tuition coverage support packages will be available to new doctoral, doctoral-bound and certain master’s students. Candidates must meet or exceed set minimum criteria or be granted an exception by the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS). The following describes those criteria and the process governing the awards to prospective students.

1. Minimum Requirements

Candidates must meet the minimum requirements listed below.

Eligible candidates will
  • be starting their first semester in a UT Arlington graduate program in Fall 2010.
  • hold one of the GTA stipends funded at the enhanced rate starting in their first semester of enrollment.
  • have a GTA appointment of 50% time.
  • have a GPA of at least 3.0 in their last 60 undergraduate credit hours plus at least a 3.25 GPA in any graduate level credit hours.
  • be unconditionally admitted to their degree program.
  • satisfy English proficiency requirements necessary to hold a graduate teaching assistantship.
  • be enrolled in a minimum of 9 hours in courses related to their programs of work in both long semesters to qualify for and retain their fellowships.
English Department Criteria

Minimum GPA of 3.5 in the student’s MA in English or a very closely related field (If the MA is not in English, we will consider the undergraduate GPA as well as that of the MA. Moreover, if the MA is not in a very closely related field, the prospective student will be admitted to the MA program in English, not the Ph.D.)

GRE scores: a minimum of 500 verbal and at least a 500 on the old analytical portion or at least a 4.5 on the new Analytical Writing measure. (We will not consider the math scores. We do not require the English subject test.)

A writing sample that demonstrates a sophisticated prose style, the ability to engage in intellectually rigorous modes of analysis, and a strong knowledge of rhetoric, composition studies, literary studies, cultural studies, or interdisciplinary critical theory.

Letters of recommendation that attest to the student’s intellectual and scholarly potential. At least two of these must be from former professors; at least one must be a professor from the student’s Master’s program.

2. Exception Requests

Exceptions may be requested for students who do not meet the minimum requirements. However, in no case should an award be promised to a student who does not meet all minimum requirements until the exception is reviewed and approved by the OGS. Such exceptions include instances where the student is admitted provisionally for final transcripts showing award of the appropriate degree (“will grad”), where a one-semester extension for meeting English proficiency requirements required for holding a GTA is appropriate, and, in some cases, when superior students have been admitted on probation. Requests for an exception must include written justification that details why the student is considered an outstanding candidate for the award despite conditions placed on his or her admission. Exceptions will not be considered for students with any provisional status other than “will grad” or for students with less than full-time enrollment.

3. Process

Students who meet all minimum requirements set by the OGS and any additional requirements set by the admitting department may be offered the enhanced support package whenever the department wishes to do so. Enhanced graduate teaching assistantships must accompany tuition fellowships.

Neither the enhanced assistantship nor the tuition fellowship may be offered to students who do not meet these requirements unless an exception request and justification has been reviewed and approved by the OGS.