Information for International Students

There are approximately 170 graduate students in the Department of Geological Sciences. We admit only about 30-35 new students each year because of limitations on supervisory capability of professors and limitations of office space, laboratory facilities, and funding. We admit only international students who individual faculty members believe have the likelihood of doing quality graduate work, and who can be supported financially by JSG - unless they are supported financially by their own government or company. Applicants with their own financial support can be considered for admission if at least one professor agrees to sponsor and supervise the student. On occasion, after a student is admitted and arrives here, either with or without their own financial support, the student may prefer to choose a supervisor different from his or her sponsor -- providing that this is mutually agreeable to both the student and sponsor.

We only admit qualified international students whose native language is not English if their sponsoring professor can provide them with at least one year of financial support if the student does not have his or her own source of funding.

We offer financial support to graduate students in three forms:

1. Teaching assistantships (TAs), which require 20 hours/week in combined duties of preparing labs, teaching labs, grading exams, keeping office hours, monitoring professors' exams, etc.
2. Research assistantships (RAs), where students do research for professors or for themselves under a professor's supervision for 20 hours/week.
3. Fellowships, which have no obligations for students to work by teaching or by helping professors with research.

Generally we offer fellowships only to students who have been here at least one year and who distinguish themselves academically. TAs can only be offered to international students whose native language is not English after they complete an English language assessment and sometimes an additional workshop offered by our International Office. Because this assessment is conducted before the semester actually begins, international students admitted with departmental support must plan on attending the International TA workshop before the beginning of their first semester. The TOEFL score is not always an adequate evaluation for this issue. Normally, we can only offer international students financial support in the form of RAs for their first year. The university does not provide any funds for RAs to our department or any other department. RA funds are obtained by faculty from outside the university from industry, government, and private sources. Only faculty with such funds can support students as RAs. Thus, we can make offers of financial support only to new (incoming) international students that individual professors decide they want to supervise and who can be supported with research funds if the student does not pass the English language assessment. Once a student successfully completes their first semester and passes the English assessment, they can be considered for a TA or fellowship support in competition with other students. Some fellowships, however, are limited to US nationals. A few students are supported continuously as RAs during their time here.

Research funds were once easy to obtain. Now they are difficult. Our National Science Foundation funds only 10% of its applications, and grants from oil companies and mining companies are less common. Still, our department and affiliated research organizations (Institute for Geophysics, Bureau of Economic Geology) support about 50 students as RAs per semester.