over 1,000 applicants competing to be part of our incoming cohort for
Fall 2018, you have been chosen by the Computer Science PhD program
in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas. We are
pleased to recommend you to the Graduate Dean for admission. Assuming
you have completed all aspects of your application to the Graduate and
International Admissions Center (GIAC), you should expect after a short
processing time to find official notice of your Graduate School admission
through the GIAC MyStatus portal.
The overall quality of our applicant pool this year was as strong as
ever. From among hundreds of very competitive applications, our admissions
committee selected you as one of the very few top prospects for completing
a successful and influential Ph.D. in computer science. Your reference
writers indicated that you have a high potential to contribute to the
field. We look forward to providing you with strong mentoring and a
supportive environment to achieve this potential.
The Department of Computer Science has a strong tradition of fully
supporting all of our Ph.D. students through a combination of Teaching
Assistantships (TA), Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA), and
prestigious external fellowships. We expect to support you with tuition,
health insurance, and a stipend sufficient to live in Austin for the
period of this offer, and though funding levels cannot be forecast with
certainty, we have a long history of supporting our Ph.D. students who
are in good standing as long as they remain in the program. We are
pleased to offer you the following financial support.
A summary of our offer to you is as follows:
* Subject to satisfactory academic and professional performance, you
can expect 9-month (September 1 through May 31) financial support from
us for five years.
* For your initial year of the PhD program, the department guarantees
that you will be supported as a Teaching Assistant in the fall and
spring semesters, earning a monthly stipend of $2,250 per month for nine
(9) months in each academic year in return for serving as a TA in a CS
class. Once you begin working with an advisor, the advisor may be able
to offer you a GRA. This would relieve you from any teaching-related
duties, and may come with a higher stipend.
* Support in future years may be in the form of Graduate Research
Assistantships, Fellowships, Teaching Assistantships, and/or Assistant
Instructorships.
* Graduate Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, Assistant Instructor,
and (in most cases) Fellowship appointments require full-time student
registration while you are serving in one of these roles: nine credit
hours each long semester, and three credit hours in summer. As long as
you receive support within the College of Natural Sciences, your tuition
for full-time registration will be fully remitted.
* Graduate Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, and Assistant
Instructor appointments include the same individual health insurance
benefits available to faculty and staff. Fellows are always eligible
for student health insurance. For more information about insurance
options while on Fellowship support, or about adding your spouse or
dependents, please contact our Graduate Coordinator, Katie Dahm at
csadmis@cs.utexas.edu.
We value our graduate students as one of the department's most precious
resources and will make every effort for you to succeed, both while you
are here and after you have completed your degree. We believe that you
will excel in our graduate program, and we hope you choose The University
of Texas for your graduate studies.
GradFest 2018
We hope you will join us for our GradFest event for admitted doctoral
students, where you will get a better appreciation for our department and
the culture in which you will participate, should you join our program.
GradFest officially begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 22, with an
informal mixer with our faculty followed by dinner. We hope you can stay
through lunch on Saturday, February 24, but if not, please make your
travel arrangements so you are available all day Friday, February 23.
You can see the calendar for GradFest and register to attend here:
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/gradfest.
We look forward to meeting you at GradFest!
Acceptance Deadline
We know that you will have other offers to consider, so if you would like
to discuss ours, please feel free to contact me by phone at 512.471.9558
or by email at mooney@cs.utexas.edu. The U.S. Council of Graduate Schools
has agreed that you may take until April 15 to accept or decline our offer
of financial support.[1] Once you have made your decision, please notify
us immediately by email, as well as by subsequently signing and returning
this letter to csadmis@cs.utexas.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Raymond Mooney
Chair, PhD Admissions Committee
Regarding your admission and support, please note the following:
1. Your appointment is subject to the provisions of The University of
Texas System Board of Regents Rules and Regulations, and The University
of Texas at Austin Handbook of Operating Procedures.
2. Financial support in any form is contingent upon meeting the scholastic
requirements for eligibility established by the Graduate School. This
entails maintaining a 3.0 GPA (Grade Point Average) on our 0-4.0 scale,
and making satisfactory progress towards your degree, as determined by
the Graduate Studies Committee in the Computer Science PhD program.
3. Financial support beyond the first semester in the form of
employment as a Graduate Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant,
Assistant Instructor, or other academic employee is contingent upon
both satisfactory academic progress and satisfactory job performance
as defined by the employing department. Your assignments as a Teaching
Assistant are under the direct supervision of the Graduate Adviser for
the Computer Science program.
4. To be eligible for appointments as Teaching Assistants or Assistant
Instructors with student contact, non-native English speakers are required
by the Texas Legislature to receive English Certification. This process
entails passing an Oral English Assessment and completing a half-day
International Teaching Assistant Workshop upon arrival.
5. As required by the Immigration Reform and Control Act, anyone employed
by The University of Texas at Austin must, within the first three days
of employment, provide Human Resources with documentation to establish
identity and evidence of employment eligibility. You must meet the
requirements of this Act to qualify for this appointment. In addition,
satisfactory completion of a criminal background check is required for
appointments designated as security sensitive.
6. Although there is no state income tax in Texas, Teaching Assistant,
Assistant Instructor, Graduate Research Assistant, and Fellowship stipends
are subject to federal income tax.
7. The health insurance provided by the University during Teaching
Assistant, Assistant Instructor, and Graduate Research Assistant
appointments covers you only. If you choose to add a spouse or dependents,
you will incur out-of-pocket costs.
__________ I accept this offer. __________ I decline this offer.
Signature and Date: