Policies, Procedures, and Forms#
The Department of Geosciences provides helpful resources on their website for understanding what existing policies, procedures, and forms exist for graduate students. The following sections refer to these resources and expand on them.
Graduate Student Handbook#
The Graduate Student Handbook is a living document for what is expected of and for every Geoscience graduate student. It covers everything from acceptable courses, to timelines for graduation, to stipend information*. Please read through this document at least once during your Onboarding, and ask about it in Issues (GEOSC 500)!
There are three levels of stipends: (A) Pre-Qualifying Exams; (B) Post-Qualifying and Pre-Comprehensive Exams; (C) Post-Comprehensive Exams. In terms of semester stipend amount: (A) < (B) < (C), on the order of a few hundred dollars. Confirm with your Terms of Offer each semester that you are on the correct level!
Rover Approval Form#
PhD students are required to pass Qualifying Exams by their 3rd semester (although exigent circumstances like illness or pandemic could delay this to the 4th semester). To do so, they must request a Rover who will: (1) fairly adjudicate the exam by coordinating it and distributing materials, and; (2) establish with the student a second area of research for the committee to review. This second area of research should be “distinct” from the main topic they are presently researching, although what constitutes “distinct” depends on the individual Rover.
Progress Report Form#
Progress Reports are required every year for all graduate students. Updates on research successes (and possibly failures) with the student’s commitee are communicated at these events. Quals and Comps can double as Progress Reports for the corresponding years.
Health Insurance#
New Graduate Assistants/Graduate Fellows/Graduate Trainees are automatically enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) for Penn State for medical, dental, and vision coverage. More information on SHIP can be found here. The cost of the policy is automatically deducted from your monthly stipends, and dependents are covered through this policy. You may waive this insurance through Workday, but without a substitute policy it is strongly recommended against.