If sufficient funds are available, it is the Department's intention to provide five years of support towards the Ph.D. to those students who first enter the program with a B.A. and four years of support to those who first enter with an M.A. Such funding is contingent on satisfactory academic progress as defined on our website (see Section VII, below).
Teaching assistants have their tuition paid by the Graduate School, but are responsible for miscellaneous fees of approximately $475 per quarter (see https://f2.washington.edu/fm/sfs/tuition/components).
VII. Satisfactory Progress Guidelines
The Department of German Studies monitors the performance of all graduate students by requiring that all instructors provide students with a discursive evaluation. Students complete and sign an annual academic planning form when they meet with the Graduate Coordinator before fall quarter and an annual self-assessment form at the end of spring quarter. The department reviews the progress of all graduate students and makes its teaching assistantship renewal decisions annually at a department meeting in early to mid February. In order to qualify for reappointment as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of German Studies students must at a minimum:
- Be planning on continued enrollment at the University and have the department’s permission to continue when such permission is required.
- Have completed 10 credits per quarter of course-work applicable to their degree programs.
- Maintain a cumulative grade-point average of 3.6.
- Be completing examinations according to the department’s schedule of satisfactory progress: in the fifth quarter of study for the MA exam, in the seventh quarter after completion of the credits for the MA for the Ph.D. exams. Summer quarters are not included in this count.
- Have demonstrated satisfactory teaching ability and willingness to take all required steps to improve performance. The teaching of all teaching assistants is evaluated for this purpose by the Language Coordinator.
Under special circumstances the department may make exceptions to these policies at the recommendation of the Graduate Coordinator, the Chair, or the Language Coordinator.
The Department reserves the right to assign 20% of its available teaching assistantships slots to students entering the program for the first time. In the event that positions are not available for all qualified continuing students in mid-February, the continuing students will be ranked. Those for whom a position is not available will be placed on the alternate list and ranked together with the new students applying for support.