General Information
Located on the 3rd floor of Cheadle Hall, the Graduate Division is the University's office for graduate affairs. It monitors admissions, fellowships, degree checks, and graduate student employment. The Dean of the Graduate Division is Gale Morrison. The Graduate Handbook, published by the Graduate Division, is available online and contains detailed information about graduate studies.
Establishing California Residency
US citizens and eligible non-citizens should establish California residency in order to avoid paying nonresident tuition. Eligible non-California residents should, immediately upon arrival, take all of the necessary steps to establish California residency. This may include obtaining a California driver's license, establishing a local bank account, registering to vote, and designating California as your permanent address on all school and employment records. The Statement of Legal Residence that you received along with your admission letter explains residency requirements in detail. Please direct specific questions regarding residency to the Office of the Registrar (805)893-3033 or visit http://www.registrar.ucsb.edu/residenc.htm
The Quarter System
UCSB is on the quarter system; each quarter is 10 weeks long, followed by a week of final exams. Fall quarter runs from approximately the 4th week of September through the 2nd week of December. Winter break is three weeks long. However, Teaching Assistants must grade finals and turn in grades before leaving. The German language common final is always on the 1st day of exam week -- i.e. a week before the break begins, so you should be able to get your grades in and leave on time. Winter quarter runs from the 1st week of January through the 3rd week of March. Spring Break lasts one week. Spring quarter runs from approximately the last week of March through the 2nd week of June. Details of the academic calendar are available every quarter in the Schedule of Classes booklet.
Registering for Classes
Except for new students, who will register after meeting with the Faculty Graduate Advisor by the first week of classes, students will register for classes during the 5th week of the previous quarter. Be sure to set up appointments to confer with the Faculty Graduate Advisor about your schedule before you register on GOLD. Note: If you are a TA, be sure to register for German 500 (TA Practicum) each quarter. These 4 units do not count towards your degree, but are important to the Graduate Division in obtaining state funding. You should register for at least 12 units per quarter. Consult the quarterly Schedule of Classes for specific deadlines, including the deadline for adding classes.
Academic Requirements and Standards
Course Load
Both MA and PhD Graduate students must enroll in and complete 12 units per quarter. In some circumstances, four of these units may be taken as independent study units numbered 596 - 599. Consult the faculty Graduate Advisor about whether it is advisable to enroll in one of these courses in a particular quarter. Courses numbered 500, 597 and 598 may not be used towards meeting the minimum unit requirement for the MA degree.
Degree Deadlines and Normative Time
The UCSB Graduate Council has set maximum time limits for degree completion to ensure that students make timely progress toward completion of their degree objectives.
- For MA students, all requirements for the MA degree must be completed within four years after admission to the Master's Program.
- For MA/PhD students, all requirements for advancement to doctoral candidacy (i.e. passing the PhD Candidacy Examination) must be completed within four years measured from the time a student begins graduate study at the UCSB at any level.
- For PhD students, all the requirements for the doctoral degree must be completed within seven years of admission to the PhD program.
When students take an approved leave of absence for medical, family emergency, military service, or pregnancy/parenting reasons, Graduate Division will extend the student's normative period by one quarter at a time to a maximum of three quarters of leave. More leaves or periods of lapsed status will not stop the normative time clock; the deadline stands. Quarters of Research Leave and the Filing Fee Quarter of Leave count toward expiration of a student's normative time clock.
Foreign Language Exam Guidelines
The foreign language translation exam will consist of translating a text from a foreign language into English. The text will be approximately 450 words in length, whose source will be chosen by the student. The student will have 1.5 hours in which to complete the translation with the aid of only a print dictionary, which the department will provide.
The purpose of the exam is to determine whether the student is able to read secondary literature written in other languages (and hence do more comprehensive research in her/his field). So the texts chosen are usually typical texts that one would encounter when doing research.
Minimum GPA
All students need to maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to be in good academic standing, which is necessary for academic appointments such as a TAship. Students must take courses for a letter grade to achieve the minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 required to remain in good standing academically. Students who take only courses graded Pass/No Pass or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory will earn a cumulative GPA of 0.0, which is unacceptable.
The Graduate Division monitors the grades of all TAs, and will intervene if a TA's GPA falls below the minimum. If it is not remedied by the deadline, the student may be subject to academic probation and subsequently to academic disqualification. For more information see the Graduate Handbook.
Graduate students are allowed to carry No Grades (NG) and No Records (NR) for only one quarter after the course was originally undertaken, before the NG or NR automatically reverts to a failing grade. Incompletes will automatically revert to a failing grade unless the work is completed and a grade reported to the registrar by the end of the subsequent quarter.
Procedure for Incompletes
Taking incompletes in graduate seminars is strongly discouraged. In an emergency, if you should make an agreement with the professor to do so, you must file a Petition for Incomplete Grade prior to the last day of the quarter (the day of the last final, not the day grades are due). Otherwise, unless you turn in your final paper in time to be graded before the final deadline for grades that quarter, the incomplete will appear as an F on your transcript. If you file your petition on time, you need to turn in your paper according to the timetable agreed upon by your professor, but no later than the end of the subsequent quarter. Incomplete coursework must be submitted no later than the end of the subsequent quarter. Petitions for incompletes are available from the Registrar.
A student with excessive units of unfinished coursework -- defined as 12 or more units of Incomplete (I), No Grade (NG), or No Record (NR) -- is sent an advisory letter the first quarter this occurs. When the excessive units of unfinished coursework occur a second quarter, the Graduate Dean places the student on academic probation and sends the student a written notice to that effect. When the excessive units of unfinished coursework occur for a third quarter, the student's Department Chair or Graduate Advisor are consulted and asked to recommend and justify (a) continued academic probation or (b) academic disqualification.
Students must remove all unfinished coursework before a degree can be awarded. Excessive units of incomplete coursework may block appointment to a TAship or other academic apprenticeships.
Academic Probation
When a student fails to meet standards of academic scholarship, he or she is ordinarily placed on academic probation for at least one regular quarter. This allows time for the student to correct deficiencies and, in conjunction with faculty, to complete a course of remedial action. If adequate remedy is made by the specified deadline, the student is returned to good academic standing. Otherwise, the student is subject to academic disqualification. Some of the problems that may result in academic probation are the following (for more information, consult the Graduate Handbook):
- A student who fails to maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0
- A student with excessive units of unfinished coursework
- Failure to meet time limits for advancement to doctoral candidacy
- Failure to meet the time limit for completion of the master's
- Failure to meet the time limit for completion of the doctorate
- Failure to meet other standards of scholarship
Academic Disqualification
All the problems that may result in academic probation may lead to academic disqualification, if occurring repeatedly (three quarters in which the student fails to maintain a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and carries excessive units of unfinished coursework). Only the Graduate Dean may disqualify a graduate student for academic reasons. Students who have been disqualified for academic reasons are not eligible to register for future quarters at UCSB, unless the Graduate Dean readmits them.
Leave of Absence
Under certain circumstances, students may petition for a leave of absence that must be approved by the student's department and Graduate Division. There are six categories of leave: 1) leave for medical emergencies (doctor's note required); 2) leave for pregnancy/parenting needs during the first 12 months after the child's birth or placement in the home (doctor's note or verification from placement agency); 3) leave to deal with emergencies in the immediate family (explanation of circumstances required); 4) military leave for students required to engage in military service (documentation of call to duty required); 5) Research Leave for students who will be away from the campus conducting research and not using faculty time or University resources (faculty verification required); 6) A Filing Fee Quarter of Leave for students who intend to file the thesis or dissertation the quarter of the leave request (faculty verification required).
Off-campus employment, lack of funds, exam preparation, or taking time off from school for personal reasons do not warrant leaves of absence. Students who do not register and who do not have a leave of absence must seek reinstatement if they wish to return to graduate standing. Graduate students studying outside the state of California for a quarter or more are encouraged to consider registering in absentia, which entitles them to a one-half reduction of the registration fee and allows them to maintain continuous registration.
Medical, parenting, family emergency, or military leaves are usually granted on a quarter-by-quarter basis, with a maximum of three quarters during the student's career. Quarters of Research Leave and Filing Fee Quarters of Leave are counted separately.
Graduate students who are granted leave are not eligible for either teaching assistant or graduate student researcher positions or for campus fellowships or financial aid. A leave of absence is no substitute for registered status in the eyes of lending agencies.
Leave of Absence petitions and additional information about leaves are available in the Graduate Division.
Lapse of Status
Students who do not register or pay fees for a given quarter "lapse status" and are no longer eligible for student privileges, including employment as TAs, access to Student Health Service and Student Health Insurance, etc. A student who has lapsed for one or more quarters must submit a Petition for Reinstatement to Graduate Standing to the faculty Graduate Advisor when seeking to return to registered status. Approval of reinstatement is not done automatically, but is granted at the discretion of the Department.
Disputes involving Graduate Student and TAs
There are appeals procedures approved by the Graduate Council for handling and resolving complaints involving graduate student disputes with graduate committees, in particular thesis and dissertation committees, and for handling disputes involving TAs or Graduate Student Researchers. Please consult the graduate advisor or chairperson for information about such guidelines in case such an event occurs.
Financial Support
Other Employment
Other employment may be available in the Department, through faculty research grants or readerships. TAships for large upper-division classes may be available for advanced graduate students. Any additional employment beyond a 50% TAship must be approved by the Graduate Division, which will want to know that you are making good progress to the degree, before approving extra employment.
The FAFSA
All domestic students who wish to be considered for any kind of financial aid, including TAships, fellowships, and loans, must file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) every year, between January 1, and March 2. You can obtain paper applications in the Financial Aid Office, or can fill out the form online, at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ Students who do not file the FAFSA by March 2 will not receive priority consideration for need-based aid.
The Graduate Division's homepage is the best source for information on both University and extramural fellowships. See http://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/Source. For certain University fellowships, application forms can be downloaded directly from the web. Make a habit of checking the pages once a month.
Fellowship Payment
Most University fellowships will be credited directly to your BARC account, in three equal installments, at the beginning of the 3 quarters of the academic year. If there is a surplus after all fees have been paid, you may receive a stipend check. Check with the Graduate Program Assistant about collecting your stipend check.
Taxes
For information about the taxation of fellowships and assistantships, please visit http://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/financial/taxmemo.shtml
Deferral of Payment of Fees
Teaching Assistants may defer payment of fees until they receive their first paycheck of the quarter. Request a letter from the Graduate Program Assistant, and take it to the Cashier's Office, 1212 Student Affairs Building. There is a fee for deferrals.
Emergency Loans
Teaching Assistants may be able to borrow against their first paycheck, starting on the first day of fall quarter. Request a letter from the Graduate Program Assistant confirming that you are a TA, and take it to the Financial Aid Office. They will lend you one month's TA salary, which is repaid in three installments, automatically deducted from your Nov. 1, Dec. 1, and Jan. 1 paychecks. A 1% interest fee is charged. Other small emergency loans may be available through the Alumni Association. If you have financial problems, you can discuss them with the Graduate Program Assistant.
Major medical health insurance is provided at no charge for all Teaching Assistants. For all other graduate students, enrollment in the Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan is automatic as part of the registration process. Students who can show evidence of comparable outside health insurance coverage can be exempted from this fee.
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