For Post Candidacy Students

Most graduate students in the Ph.D. program receive financial support as Graduate Associates, (either Teaching Associates (GTA), Administrative Associates (GAA) or Research Associates (GRA)) or as Fellows during their student career. These appointments cover the cost of tuition and the instructional fee, monthly stipend, and 100% subsidized health insurance. Renewal of GA appointments is subject to the student adhering to the code of student conduct, and remaining in Good Standing with the Physics Department.

Good Standing in the Physics Department generally requires that the student meets the Physics Core-Course GPA requirement (at least 3.30 GPA in the core courses), the Graduate School’s GPA requirement (at least 3.00 GPA in all graduate courses, see below), has satisfactory teaching performance as a GTA (as determined by the Physics Vice Chair for Administration), and is making reasonable progress towards their degree (as determined by the Physics Graduate Studies Committee). Graduate School policy is that a student with a GPA in all graduate courses below 3.00 is put on probation by the Graduate School, and is not eligible for graduate appointment for the semester following their GPA falling below 3.00 without petition from the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies to the Graduate School.

Appointment titles and the semester stipends will be sent via Workday before the start of each semester. All graduate appointments are subject to good academic standing, prior performance as well as available funding per section 9.2 of theGraduate School Handbook.  

2023-24 Stipends

Most of our students are supported for a full 12 month year that runs mid-August to mid-August for Autumn, Spring and Summer semesters with monthly stipend amounts for students appointed through the Department of Physics are:

Pre Candidacy $2585/month    Post Candidacy $2660/month  

The department remains committed to providing successful candidacy exam salary increases on a semesterly basis. A change is needed so our department policies are aligned with the HR requirements for processing graduate student appointments. To comply with these requirements, the following schedule will be implemented starting Summer 2024:  

• Students who successfully complete their candidacy exam by July 1st will receive a salary increase effective at the beginning of Autumn semester (Aug 16, 2024).
• Students who successfully complete their candidacy exam by November 1st will receive a salary increase effective at the beginning of Spring semester (Jan 1, 2025).
• Students who successfully complete their candidacy exam by April 1st will receive a salary increase effective at the beginning of Summer semester (May 16, 2025).

• Pay Dates are the last working day of month.

  Autumn: 8/16 - 12/31   August, September, October, November, and December (4.5 months)
  Spring: 1/1 - May -last business day before start of Summer term:   January, February, March, April and May (4.5 months)
  Summer: May -1st day of Summer term   May 16, June, July and August  15 (3 months)  

  Requests to move ON or OFF TA support must be made by the student’s Advisor to the Graduate Studies Office NO LATER THAN:   May  for Autumn; October 15th for Spring; March 1 for Summer 

  Date(s) per term by which unit expects to make reappointment decisions:  

                   For Autumn - May 15; Spring - October 15; Summer - March 15

   Tuition and Fees

   

The Department of Physics will make GA appointments in a manner such that students will not be billed for tuition. If a GA fails to register for classes according to the schedule published by the Registrar’s Office or class/registration information provided by the Graduate Program Coordinator, the student will be responsible for any late registration penalties that are assessed. 

The GA will also be responsible for obtaining student health insurance or waiving it if student is still on parental plan. Student Health Insurance is subsidized 100% by the University.

Primary Duties

Teaching Associates:

• Instruction of introductory physics course recitations and/or labs.
• Mandatory attendance for all associated preparation, training/organizational weekly meetings.
• Proctoring examinations as assigned.
• Duties also include grading homework and exams, record keeping, examination proctoring, holding 1 to 2 office hours
• per week, tutor room hours as assigned .
• Enroll and attend Physics 7891A teaching seminar for first academic year of teaching assignment. (Students who have already been a GTA are not required to register for this course.)
• Reappointments require satisfactory teaching performance in prior semesters.
• Other duties as assigned.
• Reappointments require satisfactory performance in prior semesters. Graduate students in our program are required by the department to maintain a 3.3 GPA in the core courses and a 3.0 overall GPA is required Graduate School policy as noted in their handbook
• *Must be available during entire term of contract.

 Research Associates:

• Responsible for conducting a directed scientific research project with a graduate faculty research advisor.
• Conduct experiments and/or performing calculations as well as organizing or analyzing data.
• Presenting findings in a publication and/or dissertation, collaborating with faculty in preparing publications, mentoring/coaching work of other GRA’s, or undergraduate students.
• Other research activities and other related duties as assigned.
• Other duties as assigned
• Re-appointments require satisfactory performance in prior semesters. Graduate students in our program are required by the department to maintain a 3.3 GPA in the core courses and a 3.0 overall GPA is required Graduate School policy as noted in their handbook.
• Please note that you must be available during entire term of contract as your tuition authorization and health insurance subsidy are both dependent on you being enrolled AND employed for the entire semester.

        *See Section 11 on Benefits in Graduate School Handbook for guidelines on short term absences.

                 Section 11.2 Time Off under Sick/Bereavement Leave 

Most graduate associates are part-time student employees (50 percent time) and therefore do not meet the eligibility criterion for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy 6.05(opens in new window). GAs, fellows and trainees do not accrue vacation or sick leave. Rules regarding time off during semester or term breaks or other times are determined by the GA’s appointing unit. GAs must check with their appointing units to determine when they are expected to be on duty. GAs that have held an appointment for more than 60.1 percent FTE for an entire 12 month period may qualify for leave under FMLA and should contact their local unit and FML Administrator(opens in new window) to determine eligibility. 

Legal Holidays. GAs are not required to work on legal holidays noted on the university calendar. When university offices are required to maintain services on certain holidays and GAs are scheduled to work on a holiday, they must be given an alternate day off.

Each program unit can determine the policy or guidelines for graduate student paid leave. Any leave additional to legal holidays is optional, but are strongly encouraged by the Graduate School. One day off for students working 20 hours per week is recommended to be assessed as 4 hours/day over 5 working days. The Graduate School has the following guidelines that are strongly encouraged for students holding a GA, fellow or trainee appointment. 

• Sick/Bereavement Leave. A period of one to three consecutive days at a time for up to a maximum of three times for personal and/or family illness each spring or autumn semester may be taken. Sick days do not accrue beyond a semester. Many GAs have nine-month appointments and thus sick leave would not be granted in the summer term. If the student is a summer GA, fellow or trainee, then 1-3 days off up to twice per summer term is recommended.
• Personal Leave. A period of up to 10 business days per year (two weeks per year) for vacation and/or personal reasons may be taken. Personal leave does not accrue.
• Professional Development Leave. It is recommended that at least 5 business days per year be allotted for professional development activities such as attending workshops, or attending and presenting scholarly work at national and international meetings.
• Parental Leave. Up to 3 weeks of leave may be granted for childbirth or adoption. Up to 3 additional weeks for health recovery of the birth mother is recommended (Appendix F). One suggested allocation would be to use remaining sick-leave, personal leave, and professional leave followed by paid leave for up to 3 or 6 weeks as applicable. Parental leave should be discussed and planned with the advisor and local unit.

Download and complete the Physics Graduate Studies Annual Review form found on the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy.” Next, please schedule a meeting with your advisor and all of your advising committee members.  Please contact your committee by (date TBD) to set up your meeting between  (dates TBD) These meetings typically should run about 15 minutes for students in their 3^rd and 4^th years and 30 to 45 minutes for students in their 5^th and 6^th years. Please note that most faculty will likely have these annual review meetings scheduled back-to-back in some cases and therefore if additional time is needed then a follow up meeting may need to be scheduled for later.  

Prepare a 3-to-5-page progress summary in Power Point, PDF, Word or your preferred document program for a 5 minute talk that should be a high level overview. Save or print the document to PDF. See Appendix below for more details for the recommended contents and suggested order. 

Update your C.V. or Resume with your accomplishments over the last year or more and save as a PDF.  The C.V./resume document is a good place to summarize some of the things you put on your review form about your recent activities. Before you meet with your full committee for your annual review, email each member the 3 PDF files (form, progress summary, CV) so they can review it prior to the meeting. For the actual meeting with you committee, bring paper copies of the 3 PDF files for each committee member who will meet in-person. It is not recommended to use a projector for in-person participants since this tends to take more time, unless your committee prefers that format. Please check with your advisor for the preferred presentation format.

 The Physics Graduate Studies program requires that students meet with all 4 of advising committee members at the same time, which can be on Zoom or a combination of in person and on Zoom (hybrid) or all on Zoom. If you need to meet with 3 out of 4 members of your committee and then later meet with the 4th person, that sort of set up is OK with the advanced approval of your advisor.  Your review will be considered “complete” after you have met with your full advising committee, your advisor has approved the annual review (see below), and you have uploaded your 3 documents to Carmen. Incomplete information on the form or missing assignments will need to be updated and uploaded. You should contact your committee no later than by (date TBD) to schedule your Annual Review for no later than (2025 date TBD). 

After meeting with your advising committee, upload your 3 PDFs to the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy” as 3 separate homework assignments. No paper copies will be accepted. Preferred file name format is: Last name, first name -C.V.; last name, first name -form; last name, first name -summary.

Your advisor will approve your Annual Review form to confirm that the annual review meeting was completed, and it will also serve as approval of your research progress toward your Ph.D. See instructions under THESIS ADVISOR below for the advisor to approve the form. Your C.V. and Research Summary will be graded by the Grad Studies office awarding a point to check in these 2 documents.  Later, your annual review document will be reviewed by the Graduate Studies office then it may be assigned to a Graduate Studies Committee faculty member. If needed, any issues or concerns will be discussed by the Graduate Studies Committee.  Should any follow up with you be required, we may contact you to have a meeting with the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies and/or the Co-Chair of the Graduate Studies Committee to discuss.  You are also welcome to contact the Physics Graduate Studies office to discuss your review should you feel that is needed.

You should meet with or have an email conversation with your student before the review meeting with the full advisory committee to discuss the contents of the filled-out annual review form and the student’s research summary.  Please be sure to both discuss and provide information for question 6 about financial support for your student(s), and please include comments on current/future funding if you feel that would be appropriate. 

You must approve the Annual Review form after the meeting. You can approve the form in one of two ways: (1) sign a paper copy of the form, which your student with then scan and upload to the Carmen course, or (2) go to the Carmen course “Physics Annual Review for Post Candidacy”, look up your student’s assignments, and award 1 point as a grade for the Annual Review form assignment. Using Speed Grader is the best option for grading. The point serves to confirm that the meeting with the committee was completed and that progress toward a Ph.D. is approved. Should there be any concerns you may request a meeting with the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies for discussion.

The Graduate Studies office will grade the other 2 assignments to confirm that all 3 documents have been uploaded.

Please work with your advisees to schedule the annual review meeting and include your meeting format preference of in person, hybrid, or all on Zoom. We require that students meet with their full committee if at all possible.  If you cannot be present for the full committee review, please do schedule another time with your advisee for an individual meeting. 

Suggested topics to cover during annual review meeting:

1. Review milestones accomplished over last year.
2. Review funding plan/student support for coming year.
3. Review plans for future presentations, conferences, workshops, summer schools, and publications.
4. Review career goals post Ph.D. and the plans to achieve them.

Before the annual review meeting ends, the Graduate Studies Office asks that the Advisor leave the room (or go to breakout room) to allow the student to talk privately with the rest of the Advising Committee in case there are issues that the student or the advising committee would like to discuss without the advisor present.

      Suggested questions to ask students in the private section of the annual review meeting:

1. What are you concerned about?  (eg. working conditions, climate, your future, etc.)
2. Are you clear on expectations for progress and graduation?
3. Are you satisfied with your progress?
4. Do you get adequate feedback?  (Can include feedback from advisor as well as group members and collaborators.)

At the end of an annual review meeting, please have the student note any comments or concerns on the student’s copy of the form. If you think private communication is needed, please send email to the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies and/or the Program Coordinator with any issues or concerns you have.

The Advisor will be approving the Annual Review form on Carmen on behalf of the committee thus confirming the student’s review material and their progress toward finishing a Ph.D.  Advisor will use Speed Grader to award 1 pt for completing the review. If you have any questions or concerns after a review, you are welcome to contact the Vice Chair of Graduate Studies for further discussion.

1. Graduate Studies (GS) Annual Review Form saved as PDF with the file name as your “Last name, First name -form; -CV.; -summary. Examples: “Buckeye, Brutus -form.pdf; Buckeye, Brutus -summary.pdf; Buckeye, Brutus -CV.pdf”  
2. The 3 to 5 page PDF document with your progress summary/overview.

Page/Slide 1-2: Your name, area of research and year you started in program. Summarize or bullet-point your research progress/accomplishments made toward your degree in the past year.  Please include such things as:

• Highlights of your research activity/project(s)               
• Any scholarships or awards you received. (ex: poster competition awards or a fellowship)
• Conferences or workshops you attended            
• Published or submitted papers (including name and full authors list (if fewer than 10 authors), noting whether or not you are first author, and journal)
• Presented or were a named contributor to a poster or talk (please indicate title of the talk, name of the conference, and whether you presented the poster or talk            
• Participated in outreach events (GRASP camp, State Fair, Breakfast of Science Champions, school visit, etc.)
• You are an officer or serving member of an OSU student organization. (Includes SWiP, PGSC, CGS, etc.)
• Other activities related to progress toward your PhD

Page/Slide 2-3: Remaining objectives for completing your research and dissertation and give a time table for achieving them.

Page/Slide 3-4: High level work plan. Please specify both student and advisor’s input where appropriate.

3.   1 to 2 page C.V. or resume in the style or format of your choosing.  

The OSU Physics Department supports the student developed and run, Physics Graduate Student Council (PGSC), which is the representative body for physics graduate students at Ohio State. The PGSC is an active and engaged group that advocates and facilitates communication and activities between the department and graduate students on all matters of mutual interest. The PGSC holds quarterly meetings and meets regularly with the department chair and vice chairs to discuss issues of concern as raised by the graduate student body. The council also hosts regular social events, mentors new graduate students, helps publicize graduate student research opportunities, organizes an annual graduate research poster competition and "core-course" faculty teaching awards, and generally enhance the social, academic and reserach experience for all physics graduate students. As such the PGSC has developed some great resources for incoming graduate students. Please feel free to browse their First-Year Survival Guide, and their website as a whole. 

First Year Survival Guide: https://u.osu.edu/pgsc/resources

PGSC Website: http://pgsc.physics.osu.edu/

OPERS

OPERS will be taken out of your first paycheck even if you opted out. If you did submit your form to opt out of OPERS they should reimburse you in Octover for the amount they took out in September. However, it is a good idea to call and verify with them that they did receive your form. 

More information on OPERS can be found here: OPERS help

Student Center Account Holds

If you are unable to register for classes, there might be a hold on your account. Please check to see if you've signed the Financially Responsibility form as well as checking off your vaccicination status.

Start of classes: Autumn 2024 August 20th (Tues) / Spring 2025 January 6th (Mon) /Summer 2025 May 6th (Tues)

• Please enroll for the coming term for all courses and research hours and be FULL time enrolled a month before the first day of the next semester's HR appointment start dates.  Procrastinate At Your Own Peril!  (See below for how many credit hours are required to be full time enrolled for a term.)  Start of graduate appointment periods: Autumn 2024 August 16th / Spring 2025 January 1st / Summer 2025 May 6th
• Step one for registering for classes:  CLEAR Financial Responsibility Statement FIRST which can be found by clicking on your To Do item labeled as that on the right menu in SIS.  
• ALWAYS verify after you submit your course registration how many credit hours you registered for as you have to change the default of 1 credit hour when registering for Physics 7998 or 8999 research and it is easy to forget to do that!
• Last Day you can ADD a full semester course ONLINE is the 1st Friday of the term!
• Deadlines Matter!  You can’t change your mind for enrolling or dropping any course AFTER the first Friday of a term as the First Friday is the deadline for a full refund of tuition.
• Remember, you should always ADD FIRST then DROP LAST. : )   SIS will not warn you that you won’t be able to add a full semester course after the first Friday as the online drop window is open until the 3^rd Friday.   Please check with the Grad studies office if you need to make any changes to your schedule after the fee payment deadline 1 week before the start of a new term.
• All PRE Candidacy students for Graduate support titles (GAA, GTA, GRA):    Autumn & Spring terms: 8 credit hours minimum but we recommend  maximized registration at 16 credit hours for autumn and spring; Summer Term: 4 credit hours. After registering for any courses, please use Physics 7998 (non-thesis research) for the full semester session that will be meet for the entire term.
• All PRE Candidacy students on Fellowship or GRA GS-Match funding):   Autumn and Spring terms we recommend maximized your enrollment to 16 credit hours then Summer Term: 6 credit hours. Please use Physics 7998 (non-thesis research) for the full semester session.
• All POST Candidacy students for all Graduate or Fellow support titles:   3 credit hours ONLY, likely for Physics 8999 (Thesis Research).  If you plan to take a course, please only register for that course if it is 3 credit hours. If it is a 1 or 2 credit hour course, then you would register for the balance of credit hours in Physics 8999. Auditing a course will NOT count toward your credit hours for your employment status therefore you will need to discuss auditing with your advisor AND the Graduate Studies office as it will need to be as additional course registration over your 3 credit hours of Physics 8999 research.  
• All POST Candidacy students: you will need advisor permission copied to the Graduate studies office to pre-approve anyone registering for extra credit hour(s) over 3 since there will be an extra amount charged for tuition if you go over 3. For post candidacy GTAs, this will require the Graduate Studies office permission working with Profs. Gupta & Heckler for pre-approval.
• POST Candidacy students that are Dissertation year Fellows, you will need to have the permission from the Graduate school to take any formal course which means that any course that isn't Physics 8999 research.  You should contact the Physics Grad Program Coordinator for assistance with this process if you decide to take a formal course during your dissertation year and you are on a Graduate School Fellowship.