Graduate assistantship at Boston College

[Kaushik_11]

Hello,

I have received an offer of admission from Boston College in their Biology Ph.D. program with confirmed assistantship to start from Fall 2011 ... very excited about it. The problem is that the funding is confirmed only for the first year. Does anybody know what happens in the later years? Is it confined to only the first year or it is renewable depending on the progress? How many students can get it renewed? I assume after the second year, I should have the opportunity to switch to RAship with funding from the lab I will join for thesis research. However, does anybody have any idea where this can lead to? if you are not from Boston College but know about similar situation, could you please explain this to me?

Thanks very much,

Kaushik.

[mbsciuch]

I had a phone interview for an Ed program and the director said that whilefunding was only guaranteed in writing for the first 2 years, students who needed it thereafter always received it... Not sure it it varies by program/department. Hope it helps

[Kaushik_11]

Thanks for your reply @mbscluch. As yet I learnt so far from people I know from other universities, the TA gets renewed for the first half of the second year depending on the GPA obtained in the courses and later, when one joins a lab for thesis research, the lab funds the students. I will have to contact the department anyway to verify the findings.

[enginerd]

I have similar concerns Kaushik. I was offered funding in the form of RA for one year only. None of the offers I got are guaranteed for more than one year, but I keep reading all these people announcing that they got funding for 4 even 5 years. I am in engineering and I wonder if it is just my field or maybe I am just not that attractive of candidate. I don't know.