What are the residency requirements?

Residency for Tuition Purposes

DETAILED RESIDENCY INFORMATION

Other requirements may apply. For further residency information, please contact the USU Admissions Office at 435-797-1079 or visit us in person at the Taggart Student Center, Room 102.


THE LAW: ESTABLISHING UTAH DOMICILE AND MAINTINING CONTINUOUS UTAH RESIDENCY FOR ONE YEAR (12 CALENDAR MONTHS) AND DECLARING FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE.

Requirements

• You must be a Citizen or Permanent Resident of the United States to apply for residency and be admitted to Utah State University.
• You must obtain a Utah Driver's License, Voter Registration, and Vehicle Registration. These three items must be obtained at least 3 months before you apply for residency. For example, if you are applying for residency for the fall semester, you would need these items by May 1st. For spring semester, you must obtain these items by October 1st. If you are using a vehicle in Utah, even if it is in your parent's name, it needs to be registered in Utah.
• You must live in Utah for 12 continuous months. You cannot be absent from the state for more than a total of 30 days during this time frame (this includes Christmas Break, Spring Break, and summer). You must provide two different types of evidence as verification, which are:
1. Verification of Housing in Utah: This must cover the full 12-month period. This can include rental agreements, letters from your landlord, or your mortgage statement.
2. Verification of Physical Presence in Utah: This must also cover the full 12-month period, and is verification of what you were doing in Utah. This can be your unofficial transcripts if you were a student, paystubs if you were working, letters from coaches or volunteer organizations, or bank statements showing transactions in Utah. If you are unable to provide any of these types of verifications, please contact our office regarding other options. You must be able to provide proof of your physical presence for the full 12-month period.

A typical example would be a student who attended school fall and spring semesters but did not attend school in the summer and instead got a job. You would need to provide the rental contracts for the full 12 months to verify housing, unofficial transcripts to prove what activity you were involved in for fall and spring semesters, and paystubs for each month of the summer to verify you were physically present in Utah.

• You must be declared financially independent. This means you cannot be claimed as a dependent by anyone outside the state of Utah on your most recent tax return. For example, if you are applying for residency for the Fall 2011 semester, you must not be claimed as a dependent by anyone outside of Utah on taxes filed by April 2011 for the 2010 tax year. You will need to submit a copy of your 1040 Form as proof of this (the first 2 pages of your federal tax return).
• Enrolled nonresident students need to obtain residency during their first year in order to avoid the cost of nonresident tuition during their second year.  Students will need evidences of establishing domicile: Utah driver license, Utah vehicle registration, and Utah voter registration. ALL of these must have an issue date of at least 3 MONTHS BEFORE THE SEMESTER BEGINS.  For the Fall semester, students should have these items by the first week in June.

How To Apply

• Fill out the Online Residency Application through your USU Access (Banner) account  under "Student" then "Student Records".
• Send in required documentation to the Admissions Office, TSC Room 102, 0160 Old Main Hill, Logan UT 84322-0160, or fax it to 435-797-3708. Please include your A# on all documentation.
• Check your residency status online frequently to see if we require any further documentation.
• Once your residency is approved, please contact the Financial Aid Office at 435-797-0173 to let them know of your change of resident status if you are receiving federal aid as an out-of-state student.

Exceptions

There are provisions in the law that enable a person to be granted Utah residency for tuition purposes as an exception to the requirements listed above. Exceptions are listed below, but please contact the Admissions Office for more information regarding requirements and restrictions for each exception.

• Persons who marry a Utah resident
• Dependent children and spouses of those with full-time employment in Utah
• Persons who have a parent who is a Utah resident
• Persons recruited or transferred to Utah for full-time employment
• Recipient of State Social Services Benefit
• Military personnel and their dependents who were Utah residents prior to active-duty deployment
• Active-duty military personnel and their dependents w/current duty station in Utah (no residency application required)
• Native Americans registered on tribal rolls of Tribes whose lands border Utah (no residency application required)
• Members of the Utah National Guard (no residency application required)

*Note: WUE and Nonresident Alumni Legacy recipients are not eligible to apply for residency for tuition purposes using the time spent receiving the waivers. For more detailed information regarding residency requirements, please refer to the Utah System of Higher Education's website or feel free to contact the Admissions Office at 435-797-1079.

Please send photocopies of supporting documentation to the Admissions Office at the address below.

Admissions
Taggart Student Center 102
0160 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-0160
Fax: 435-797-3708
Phone: 435-797-1079
Email: residency@usu.edu 

What is a grace semester?

After you defend your Plan A or B thesis, or complete your final course for a Plan C degree, the Graduate School allows you the following semester to complete your paperwork without incurring a fee. This is called the “grace semester.”

For example, if you defended your Plan A or B thesis, or completed your 33 credits of coursework for a Plan C degree, during Spring semester, but you didn’t manage to get your thesis finally approved or all the paperwork filed before the end of that semester, the Grad School would give you the Summer semester as a grace semester to tie up the loose ends. Similarly, if you finished academic work in Fall, Spring would be your grace semester.

However, be sure to tie up all the loose ends by the end of your grace semester. If you don’t, you will have to pay a $100 Late Completion fee for each semester after your grace semester until you complete. It’s the Grad School’s way of motivating you to finish. For example, if you defended or finished coursework in Spring but didn’t complete paperwork requirements by the end of the summer grace semester, you would have to pay $100 if you completed by the end of Fall or $200 if you completed by the end of Spring. Each semester after your grace semester would add another $100 fee until you completed. The moral is to keep your head down and follow through with the paperwork, not let the final details drag on indefinitely.

Can I change my degree or specialization?

If you think you are in the wrong specialization and belong in one of our others, please refer to our "flow chart" to determine which area you feel you belong and see your Advisor for more assistance.

If you still want to make the switch, see the Advisor for the specialization you’d like to be in. If the switch is still on after that, see Evelyn Funda. Switching to another degree program outside the department is more complicated.

How long can I take to complete my degree?

The Grad School gives you six years from the time you matriculate (i.e. from the time you are accepted into the program). Taking longer than six years requires special approval from the Grad School. Courses on your transcript have a “shelf life” of eight years, after which they may not be counted towards your degree.

How do I avoid academic probation?

If your GPA drops below 3.0 in a semester, it will trigger a warning letter from the Grad School. If it’s below 3.0 in two consecutive semesters, you may be placed on probation, in which case you will not be able to teach as a GI. Your GPA is calculated on all courses you take after matriculation. However, once your Doctoral Program of Study Form or Master's Program of Study Form  has been approved, your GPA is calculated from only the courses listed on that form.

B- is the lowest grade that will count towards your degree in the Departmen of English. Courses for which you receive a C+ or lower will not count.

Can I take any undergraduate classes for graduate credit?

5000-level classes may be included on your Program of Study form. Up to three credits of coursework in the 3000-4990 range can be included on your Program of Study form, but only if they are outside your degree field and are not required for any of our department’s undergraduate programs. Courses below the 3000 level will not count for your degree. Our Literature and Writing specialization does not allow 5000-level English classes to count towards the degree.

What happens if I don’t register for classes in a semester?

The Grad School requires you to be registered for at least three graduate credits every fall and spring semester (summer registration is optional) from the time you matriculate until the time you defend your Plan A or B thesis or complete your Plan C coursework.

However, if you need to take a “time out” in a fall or spring semester, contact Evelyn Funda. You may be able to satisfy the continuous registration requirement by paying the Grad School a $100 Continuous Registration Fee, provided you are not teaching as a GI or using any faculty time or university resources (like the library) during that semester. Under certain circumstances it may also be possible to petition for a leave of absence and have the $100 fee waived. See pp. 117-118 of the General Catalog for further explanation of the continuous graduate registration requirement and leaves of absence.

What does it mean to be a “full-time matriculated student”?

You are considered a matriculated student if you have been accepted both by the department and by the Grad School into one of the university’s programs, and if you have enrolled in at least one graduate class. To be considered a full-time student, you need to be enrolled in 9 or more graduate credits each term. (However, read the next section below to learn about conditions in which you can be considered a full-time student when taking fewer than 9 credits in a semester.)

Some financial aid programs require students to be enrolled in at least 6 credits per semester. However, unless you are teaching as a GI, the Grad School does not require you to be enrolled in any more than 3 graduate credits each fall and spring semester—i.e., to fulfill the “continuous registration requirement” described in #6 above. If you only take 3 credits in a semester (perhaps because you are committed to full- or part-time employment elsewhere), you would be considered a part-time student.

You must be enrolled in at least 3 graduate credits during the semester in which you defend—even if you already have the requisite 30 credits to graduate. Let’s say you plan to complete your degree in the spring semester by taking a seminar and 3 credits of Engl. 6970: Thesis. You plan to defend your thesis that semester, but it takes longer than you expected and by the end of the semester you are still not ready to defend. You decide to work on your thesis over the summer and defend it early in the fall semester. At the end of spring semester your transcript would show 30 credits, but you would be required to register for 3 more graduate credits in the fall semester, when you defend. These additional credits might come from a seminar, or, if you don’t want to take any more seminars and all you want to do in the fall semester is defend the thesis, you could register for 3 credits of Engl. 6990: Continuing Graduate Registration. These are “empty” credits, fulfilling the graduate school’s requirement but not requiring any additional work from you.

What can I do as a grad student in the summer?

 Although it’s not required, you can use the summer to take classes and make progress towards your degree. Watch for announcements during Spring semester about eight-week courses and one-week workshops, conferences, and symposia offered for graduate credit during the summer. Some of these fill very quickly, so make your plans early. No more than 12 credits from workshops, conferences, and symposia can be counted towards your degree. Some summer workshops may be held at off-campus locations along the Wasatch front. The Literature and Writing specialization limits students to no more than 12 graduate credits in any one summer.

During the summer, don’t count on defending your thesis or working with faculty members outside the context of classes they are teaching. Faculty members are on 9-month or 10-month contracts, and they are not paid to do Supervisory Committee work for students during the summer. Although they may agree to work with you during summer, those months are their time to catch up on their own research for tenure and promotion, so plan to avoid encroaching on that time.

You can also apply to teach online sections of Engl. 1010 or 2010 in the summer. These courses are offered through Extension’s Time-Enhanced Learning (TEL) and are taught completely online via the Internet using a Blackboard classroom. However, availability of these courses is severely limited. Priority for summer teaching will be in the following order: (1) New GIs, (2) Second-year GIs, (3) Instructors and Lecturers. Because our summer courses are now all taught through extension, there is no requirement to register for any number of graduate credits in the summer. Because they are taught online, you may teach your course from anywhere you happen to be located during the summer.

When should I visit the Director of Graduate Studies?

Prof. Evelyn Funda is the DGS and her job includes overseeing all the administrative procedures you need to follow in order to graduate according to plan. It makes her job much easier if you understand them too, so please do your homework and take responsibility for your progress towards graduation. Make an appointment to see the DGS at least once a semester to discuss your progress, or whenever you have questions about any of the topics on this web page. If her office door (RBW 312G) is open, feel free to drop in for consultations. You can also reach her by phone (797-3653) or email: Evelyn.Funda@usu.edu.

What is my Supervisory Committee and what does it do?

All graduate students should have a Supervisory Committee in place by the end of their first year. Your Supervisory Committee is a group of three faculty members who will oversee your graduate work, including what courses you are allowed to count toward your degree and your thesis, if you do Plan A or Plan B. The committee will also set and evaluate your oral or written Comprehensive Exam (dependent upon program) and conduct your Thesis Defense. The committee consists of a chair (with whom you will be working most closely) and two other members, one of whom must be from outside your program (for instance, a folklorist could serve on a Literature and Writing committee) and may be from outside the department (for instance, American Studies students often have historians serving on their committees). A fourth member is occasionally included, but only if his or her particular expertise is needed. Faculty members must be approved by the School of Graduate Studies before they are eligible to serve on Supervisory Committee (faculty eligible for SC service must be full-time faculty with a terminal degree or have special permission from the School of Graduate Studies; see DGS if you have questions about whether a faculty member is eligible).

Your Supervisory Committee Chair will help you formulate your Plan A or Plan B project and recruit committee members to work with you on that project, or s/he can discuss with you the possibility of a Plan C program. Therefore, selecting your Supervisory Committee early is crucial.

To register your Supervisory Committee with the Graduate School, you will need to complete the Supervisory Committee form found here.  Print, the completed form, and gather your committee members initials on it to confirm their willingness to serve. When you have their initials, drop the form off in Evelyn Funda’s mailbox (or send it to her via USU address). Please keep the DGS informed of any changes to your supervisory committee.  Changes to the SC cannot be made during the six weeks prior to the final defense.

What are Plans A, B, and C, and how do I choose one?

For most students, Plan A and B are the recommended options. However, for some students, Plan C will be an acceptable alternative. 

PLAN A requires 30 credits to graduate, six of which must be from Engl. 6970: Thesis. Requires a thesis of 60+ pages, for which a proposal must be written, approved by the Supervisory Committee, and filed with the Grad School. Plan A requires a thesis defense, after which the thesis must be read and approved by the Grad School. Choose Plan A if, during your first year, you already have a project in mind that is large enough and interesting enough to require a treatment of 60+ pages; or if you have plans to do a PhD and want to preview the experience of researching and writing a long project.

PLAN B requires 30 credits to graduate, at least two (usually three) of which must be from Engl. 6970: Thesis. Depending on the specialization, Plan B requires either a short thesis of at least 30 pages or two papers of 15-20 pages each, usually written to be submitted to an appropriate journal. The format of the proposal is determined by the Supervisory Committee and the proposal is not filed with the Grad School. Plan B requires a thesis defense meeting between student and committee, but approval of the proposal need not be reported to the Grad School.
PLAN C requires 33 credits to graduate—three more than Plans A or B. Plan C is the non-thesis option, so none of the 33 credits may be from Engl. 6970: Thesis and there is no thesis defense. All students in the online Technical Writing program must choose Plan C. Students in other specializations who are interested in Plan C should consult Evelyn Funda or one of the other graduate advisors.

When should I register for thesis credits?

Ideally, you should register for Thesis credits (Engl. 6970) after you have completed your coursework and have nothing left to do but finish your Plan A or Plan B project(s). Leaving your Thesis credits to the end of your program of study also allows you to teach while only taking three credits of Thesis (see paragraph 2 under “How many credits do I need to take in order to be a GI?” above).

However, there may be situations when it is smart to register for Thesis credits before you complete your coursework, and perhaps even before you begin work on your thesis. For instance, you might take Thesis credits during fall or spring semester of your first year if there happens to be a dearth of appropriate classes in your program that term. And if you are fortunate enough to receive a one-semester tuition waiver, that term would be a good one in which to take Thesis credits as well as a couple of seminars (in order to make the most of the tuition waiver).

On the other hand, if you take your Thesis credits during your first year, you might find yourself having to take labor-intensive seminars during your final semester, at the same time as trying to complete and defend your thesis. When that happens, the thesis defense often gets postponed till the following semester, during which you may have to register for three additional credits to fulfill the Grad School’s continuous registration requirement (see above).

How do I register for Thesis, Directed Study, or Internship?

To register for Thesis (Engl. 6970), Directed Study (Engl. 6920), or Graduate Internship (Engl. 6900), you will need to complete a form entitled “Request for Enrollment in Individual Projects Classes.” You pick up this form from the English Department Office (RWST 201) and return it when completed. It allows the department to keep track of who is taking these independent study courses, what they are doing, and which professor is responsible for the grade.

You may take no more than three credits of Directed Study (Engl. 6920) for your degree. (The reason for this limit is that Directed Study credits take students out of graduate seminars and place an extra supervision burden on faculty, who are not paid extra for 6920 projects. In special cases, however, a faculty member may request that the three-credit limit be waived to allow a student to take an additional three credits of 6920 under his or her supervision.)

What is a Program of Study; why and how do I do it?

Program of Study Form

The Program of Study form is required by the Grad School by the end of the second semester after matriculation. A Program of Study tells the School of Graduate Studies how to contact you, what kind of degree you plan to earn, what courses you have taken, what courses you will take, as well as the proposed title(s) of your Plan A thesis or Plan B papers. The Program of Study form must be reviewed and signed by your Supervisory Committee members, in accordance to course acceptability guidelines listed in the General Catalog.

How to fill out the Program of Study Form:

1) Click on the appropriate Program of Study Form (Master’s level Program of Study Master’s level Program of Study here: or Doctoral level Program of Study Doctoral level Program of Study here) on the forms page of the blog.

2) Review degree requirements in general catalogue and guidelines above, paying special attention to the guidelines for “Course-Level Numbering and Acceptability.” In short, you should only list graduate level courses and/or courses that have been approved by your Supervisory committee; do not list language courses or courses that you may have taken for fun (in other words, something like karate cannot be counted on a Program of Study).

3) Fill out the top part of the form.
     A) Be sure to use a current email address.
     B) Use the dropdown boxes to fill in Department, Degree Sought, Program/Major.
     C) In the “Specialization” box, Masters students should list whether they are one of the following: Literature and Writing, American Studies—Standard, or American Studies—Folklore.
     D) Check either Plan A, B, or C. The decision for this should be made in consult with your Supervisory Committee. See here for discussion of the difference between these plans:
4) Fill out the coursework that you have already taken that will apply toward your degree. Be sure to enter the grade you received.

5) Continue by filling out the coursework you anticipate taking in order to complete your degree. In this case, you are taking your “best guess” about what will be offered and what you would like to/should take. Check with the blog about upcoming course offerings. Also talk to your Supervisory Committee chair about this and/or the DGS. Although the schedule for your final semester may not be set at the time you are filling out your Program of Study, you can often look at courses offered during the target semester in previous years. (For instance, if you plan to graduate next Spring, look at what is being offered this Spring. Many courses have the same number and just vary depending on faculty. So if this Spring had an “American Literature and Culture” Course or a “Creative Nonfiction Workshop,” then it is more likely a course like that will be offered the following year). At this point, you are merely prediciting what you will take (and showing the School of Graduate Studies that your plan is a viable one); you are not locking yourself into a set of courses. If changes in your Program of Study need to be made before you graduate, they can be done so easily (see step 9 below). To finish filling out this portion of the PoS, be sure to enter course numbers and the number of credit hours; simply leave the grade column blank.

6) On the third page of your Program of Study form, be sure to fill out the“Credit Subtotal” that appears at the bottom of the page. (For Plan A & B students, this number should be 30 or above; for Plan C students, this number should be 33 or above; for PhD students, this number should be 60 or above). Note to Master level students: this will probably be the only thing you fill out on page three; it is nevertheless an important page. Do not throw page three away because it otherwise looks blank!

7) On page 4, fill in the “Title of thesis or report,” if you are doing a Plan A or B thesis. Again, this is a prediction. It is the working title of your project and filling out this form does not lock you into that topic or title. Sign in ink page 4 where it says “Student Signature,” and then have the members of your Supervisory Committee review and sign your form.

8) Submit the completed form to DGS for final departmental review. At this point, you need do nothing more for the time being. The DGS will review the form and be in touch with you and your committee if any changes need to be made. The DGS will also get the Head’s signature and will submit the form to the School of Graduate studies. After it has been received, reviewed and filed at the School of Graduate Studies, you will receive an email that the form has been approved.

9) If you need to make changes to your Program of Study after your form has been submitted to the School of Graduate Studies (e.g., you decide to take different courses or you change the title of your thesis), amendments to the Program of Study form can be made with an e-mail from the major professor to Joan Rudd (joan.rudd@usu.edu) with copies (in the cc: field) to all committee members and the Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Funda. Submission of a new Program of Study is not necessary.

Additional Information on Course-Level Numbering and Acceptability Guidelines (from catalogue):

7000-7990 are doctorate-level courses. With supervisory committee and instructor approval, they may be used in a master’s program.

6000-6990 are master’s-level courses. With supervisory committee approval, they may be used in a doctoral program.5000-5990 are advanced, upper-division courses and may be used in a graduate program if approved by the supervisory committee (see below).

3000-4990 are junior/senior, upper-division undergraduate courses. Up to 3 semester credits of coursework at this level may be used (see below).

No more than 15 semester credits of 3000-5990 level coursework may be used for a graduate degree, except for a doctorate without a master’s degree, for which a total of 21 semester credits of 3000-5990 level coursework may be used. Up to 3 semester credits of coursework at the 3000-4990 level may be included within the 15 or 21 semester credit limit, upon recommendation by the student’s supervisory committee and approval by the graduate dean. To be approved, such courses must be outside the student’s graduate-degree field. Courses that students entering the graduate program are expected to have taken as undergraduates and prerequisites for graduate courses are not acceptable.

2990 and below are lower-division courses and are not acceptable for graduate degree programs of study.

6990 and 7990 (continuing graduate advisement) credits, INST 7920, and IELI 7920 cannot be used in a degree program; they do not count on a Program of Study.

Audited courses may not be used for a degree program or toward status as a full-time student.

Credits in the following areas are not acceptable in a degree program: foreign languages, continuing graduate advisement, individual home study, military science, and courses numbered below 3000.

No more than 12 workshop credits may be applied to a master’s degree.

Graduate students are required to maintain at least a 3.0 GPA for degree-program courses. B- is the lowest grade that will count towards your degree. Courses for which you recieve a C+ or lower will not count. 

What is the Comprehensive Exam and when do I take it?

If you are in the Literature & Writing specialization, or if you are a Plan C American Studies or Folklore student, you take this exam about a month before you defend your thesis. Its purpose is to see how well you can reflect on the coursework you have completed, relating the courses to each other and discussing common themes. Your Supervisory Committee writes the question and submits it to Evleyn Funda. You answer it in a ten-page essay written at home during a 72-hour period. If you are a Plan A or B American Studies or Folklore student, the comprehensive exam is conducted orally as part of your thesis defense.

How do I schedule and prepare for my Thesis Defense?

If you are following Plan A or B, you are required to meet with your Supervisory Committee to defend your thesis or papers. An appointment for the defense must be made with the Grad School, using a form signed by your Supervisory Committee members, at least ten working days before the requested defense date. Pick up this form from Dr. Evelyn Funda or download it here. (The lead time gives the Grad School time to prepare and distribute the paperwork for the defense.)

The defense meeting should be an opportunity for you and your committee members to celebrate the successful completion of an engaging project with a lively discussion of the work and its implications for your future scholarship. The meeting is traditionally called a “defense” because a fundamental activity of scholarship is to test the strength and validity of ideas and knowledge through argument and the give-and-take of healthy debate. In that sense, you may be expected to explain or “defend” the ideas in your thesis or papers in face of reasonable challenges or alternative ideas or questions raised by your committee members. You can think of your defense as a kind of graduate seminar meeting on the subject of your thesis.

Just as you need to be prepared for a seminar meeting, you need to be prepared for your defense. The defense should not be a workshop on a first draft of your thesis, and it should not be the occasion when committee members feel obliged, for the sake of their own integrity as scholars, to raise fundamental objections to any aspect of your work. Those kinds of challenge should be addressed long before the defense. For this reason, the first draft of your work should be turned in to your committee far enough in advance to allow at least one cycle of revision before the defense.

Here are the latest allowable deadlines for preparing the defense:

4 weeks before defense: Last day to submit first complete draft to committee members

3 weeks before defense: Draft returned to you from committee with comments

2 weeks before defense: Last day to schedule defense date with Grad School

10 days before defense: Last day to return revised draft to committee before the defense

These are bare-minimum deadlines. Aim to stay as far ahead of them as possible, giving your committee plenty of time to alert you to any substantive problems they may find in your work. That will give you time to address those problems before the defense. Negotiate with your committee to develop an acceptable timetable for submitting drafts and receiving responses. At the defense, the committee may approve the thesis as is, or they may approve it contingent on specified minor revisions, or they may reject it and call for another defense following significant revisions.

To avoid wasting the time of English Department faculty and Graduate School employees by requiring them to flag errors, be sure that your Plan A thesis or Plan B work follows an acceptable style guide to the letter and proofread it carefully. Download the USU Publication Guide(a .pdf file) or buy a copy at the USU Bookstore. Attend one of the free Graduate School workshops on thesis preparation.

What are the Hooding & Commencement ceremonies?

At the end of spring semester, hooding is a ceremony for graduate students only—not undergraduates. It takes place on the last Friday afternoon of the semester and involves a procession of students and faculty into the Spectrum arena, where graduating students are called up by name to have their degree hood placed on their shoulders and their diploma presented to them. Commencement usually takes place the following morning and is a grander, though less personal ceremony. Again, there is a procession into the Spectrum, where speeches are made and the degrees are formally conferred on both graduates and undergraduates. Family and friends are welcome to attend both the Hooding and the Commencement ceremonies.

What should I do each semester to graduate in two years?

The timetable below shows you what you should be doing each semester in order to graduate in two years, assuming you are a Graduate Instructor teaching two sections of Engl. 1010 or 2010 each semester and taking no more than six credits per semester. (You should generally not take nine credits in a semester unless graduate study is your only occupation.) As you will see below, to finish in two years while working as a GI or in some other job, you will probably have to take credits during the summer. Numbers in [brackets] indicate the running total of credits you will have accumulated each semester. If graduate studies are your only occupation, then you should consider taking 9 credits each semester.

FALL, FIRST YEAR:

• Take 2 seminars, including Engl. 6820 if you are a new GI. [6]
• Begin thinking about Plan A/B projects.
• If you want an MA rather than an MS, make plans to fulfill the language requirement.
• If you are an American, non-Utah resident, start the process of establishing Utah residency so as to avoid paying non-resident tuition in your second year.

SPRING, FIRST YEAR:

• Take 2 seminars. [12]
• Choose topic(s) for a Plan A thesis or Plan B projects.
• Recruit three faculty members to serve as your Supervisory Committee.
• Meet with Evelyn Funda  to discuss the committee, your Program of Study, and graduation plans.
• Meet with your Supervisory Committee to begin work on the proposal for your Plan A thesis or Plan B projects (see guidelines document).
• Secure Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval on your proposal if necessary.
• If possible, attend Hooding and Commencement ceremonies at the end of term, to inspire you to graduate next year!

SUMMER BETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND YEARS:

• Take six credits of coursework or workshops if approved by your committee. [18]
• Work on your thesis proposal.
• Evelyn Funda will file forms at the Graduate School recording your Supervisory Committee and your Program of Study.

FALL, SECOND YEAR:

• Take two seminars or thesis credits. [24]
• Secure your Supervisory Committee’s approval on the proposal and on your Program of Study and work on your Plan A thesis or Plan B paper(s).
• Buy a copy of the Publication Guide for Graduate Students from the Bookstore and follow its guidelines as you write your Plan A or B project. You can also download it from the Grad School website: http://www.usu.edu/graduateschool/training/workshops.cfm  
• Attend one of the Grad School’s Thesis & Dissertation Format Workshops (see the same website for dates).
• Complete any Incomplete grades left over from last fall by the end of this term.

SPRING, SECOND YEAR:

• Take remaining 6 credits—typically six credits of 6970: Thesis (Plan A) or a seminar and three credits of 6970: Thesis (Plan B). Plan A students may choose to divide their Thesis credits over more than one semester. [30]
• Check your transcript on the USU transcript request web page for any remaining Incomplete grades and take care of them.
• Keep track of the deadlines for defending your thesis and graduating by the end of term.
• Make sure you are scheduled for the right degree—MA or MS. If it’s the MA, be sure you have fulfilled the language requirement and reported it to the Grad School. If you want to switch from the MA to the MS, arrange this with Evelyn Funda.
• With your committee, pick a defense date and see Evelyn Funda about scheduling it with the Grad School. The appointment must be made at least 10 working days before the defense.
• Take care of graduation paperwork and fees as soon as you receive materials from the Grad School.
• If required (check with your Supervisory Committee), take the written Comprehensive Exam.
• Defend your Plan A thesis or Plan B projects.
• If you are doing Plan A or B, check that your Engl. 6970 credits have all been given a P grade.
• If you are on Plan B or C, ask Evelyn Funda to send a Letter of Completion to the Grad School when you have completed all paperwork requirements.
• If you are on Plan A, you and your committee should proofread your thesis very carefully and then submit it to the Grad School.
• When the Plan A thesis is returned to you by the Grad School with any needed corrections redlined, make the corrections and then show the marked and corrected pages to Evelyn Funda. Then resubmit the corrected thesis to the Grad School for final approval.
• Complete all fees, paperwork, etc. on schedule and check with Joan Rudd (435-797-1187, joan.rudd@usu.edu) in the Grad School that you have been “closed out” before you leave the area.
• If possible, attend Hooding and Commencement ceremonies.

What’s the difference between an MA and an MS?

You receive an MA only if you can demonstrate ability in a language other than English while you are matriculated in this graduate program. If you don’t do this, you will receive the MS. Take a minute to check your acceptance letter to see whether you were admitted for an MA or an MS. If it’s for an MA, the Grad School will expect you to demonstrate your linguistic ability sooner or later. To switch between the MA and the MS, deliver a brief, signed note to the Grad School asking them to make the switch.
 

 You can demonstrate your language ability in one of three ways:
 

1) by passing a test of written and oral comprehension in an approved foreign language, administered by the Dept. of Languages & Philosophy (for $25)

2) by passing the final course in a two-year undergraduate foreign language sequence

3) by passing just the first year of coursework in two different foreign languages.

If you choose 2), you can take as many of the courses in the two-year sequence as you need, provided you pass the final one with a C or better grade, or a P grade (undergraduate language courses may be taken Pass/Fail). Taking the language test will tell you how many of these courses you need to take.

Please click here to fill out the Language Requirement Form.

 

BYU Women and Creativity CFP

CALL FOR PAPERS

Brigham Young University

Women’s Studies

Invite proposals for the conference:

WOMEN AND CREATIVITY

Conference date: November 3-5 2011

Throughout history, women have strived to demonstrate their ability to create lasting literary or artistic works, to find new ways of expressing themselves, to better our world through valuable research and innovative thinking. This inter-disciplinary conference seeks to examine issues related broadly to women and creativity and to bring together faculty and advanced students interested in sharing research on women in the arts, literature and sciences.  We invite proposals from literature, visual and performing arts, philosophy, religion, law, social studies, anthropology, sciences, and public health.

Possible themes:

·      Literature by women authors

·      Women artists, women in the arts

·      The Muse

·      Creativity transmitted by women

·      Representations of women authors or artists in literature, visual arts, popular culture

·      Women as promoters of scientific progress

·      Women in modernity

·      Women in education/pedagogy

·      Women and medicine/nursing

·      Social/Historical perspectives

We invite faculty interested in the conference to submit 300-word abstracts for individual papers on these subjects or other related themes. Advanced students should submit both a 100-word abstract, and an 8-10-page paper. Submissions should be sent by August 15, 2011 to womenscreativityconference@byu.edu.

Submissions should include:

a) author(s), b) academic affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) (for students) an 8-10 page paper.

E-mails should include in the subject box: WSC Abstract Submission.

Each presenter will have 20 minutes for the presentation, followed by 10 minutes for discussions. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume.

Credits Required for GIs

How many credits do I need to take in order to be a GI? 

To teach classes as a Graduate Instructor, the Grad School requires that you be a full-time matriculated student. However, for GIs that does not mean taking 9 credits per semester. If you are a GI with a teaching workload of 15 or more hours per week, you are considered a full-time student if you take at least six graduate credits during the semester. In the English Department, we define the first class you teach as 15 hours (.375 time), and the second class you teach as an additional 5 hours for a total of 20 hours (.500 time). Our thinking is that preparing for one class takes almost as much time as preparing for two sections of the same class. This definition also allows students to take six credits (as opposed to nine) when they are teaching only one class as a GI.

If you have completed all your coursework and have only three credits of Thesis left to complete your 30 credits for the degree, and if your Master's Program of Study form or Doctoral Program of Study Form has been approved, the Grad School will consider you a full-time student when you take just three credits. That means you will be allowed to teach two sections as a GI while taking only three credits of Thesis. If you choose to exercise this option, you should notify the Grad School to be sure that they know you are doing so and agree that you are eligible.

You will not be eligible for this option if you still need to take seminars to complete your Program of Study. Nor will you be eligible if you have more than three credits of Engl. 6970 (Thesis) remaining. For instance, suppose you are beginning your final academic year and you have completed all your seminar work, needing only six credits of Engl. 6970 to finish your Plan A thesis. If you were not teaching, you could take three of those Thesis credits in fall and the other three in spring. However, if you want to teach as a GI both those semesters, the Grad School would require you to register for an additional three graduate credits in the fall.