E. Financial Wellness and Support

Clinical Student Traineeship Travel Fund

Students who travel to external traineeships that are more than 30 miles from their home to their placement will receive a 400-dollar William Snyder Scholarship to help alleviate travel costs. Students must provide evidence (such as a google map from their home to the placement) that their placement is more than 30 miles one way in travel. Students can receive this scholarship only once during their time in the program. Receipt of the scholarship will be facilitated by the Director of Clinical training after traineeship decisions have been finalized in the spring semester.

Departmental Stipend Information

Doctoral students in the department receive a 9-month stipend of $21,000. There is also the potential (though not guaranteed) for summer funding of about $4,000 (high end $6500). To find out when these funds are distributed to help you with financial planning, visit Graduate Appointments under 鈥淲hen do I get Paid?鈥�

This stipend is provided in exchange for 15 hours/week of work in the department, which may be assisting another faculty member or instructor with their course (GA), being an instructor of a course (TA), or being a research assistant (RA) for a faculty member (note that sometimes those RA positions are for more hours/week and thus also may have different stipend amounts).

How assignments are made

1. The PI determines RA placements and communicates them to the Graduate Chair.
2. The Associate Chair of Scheduling assigns TAs (also called Instructor of Record). The procedures for assigning instructors are as follows:
   1. A survey is sent to students in November of each academic year to indicate readiness and desire to teach, as well as preferences for what to teach.
   2. Decisions are based on teaching needs, student qualifications, and student preferences. Priority is given to teaching needs and students鈥� qualifications.
   3. To be qualified, a student must have
      1. taken the teaching seminar (PSY7960) or show evidence of its equivalent from another intuition confirmed by the PSY7960 instructor
      2. taken a graduate-level course on the subject of the course they would be teaching (e.g., to teach research methods [PSY2120), one has to have taken PSY6120.
   4. To teach an online course, a student must have taken the designing an online course consultation from the Office of Instructional Design.
   5. In the first semester of teaching, graduate students will be enrolled in a teaching practicum (PSY 7926) to support them in their teaching.
3. GAs are assigned by the Graduate Chair based on the following:
   1. About one month before the start of a term (the timing may fluctuate depending on when graduate appointment materials need to be submitted), the Graduate Chair requests
      1. Faculty members provide their preferences for GAs for their class and confirm whether any graduate students will serve as RAs
      2. Graduate student instructors (TAs) provide their preferences for GAs for their class and whether they would consider GAing their own class
      3. Graduate student GAs provide their preferences for courses to GA.
      4. Graduate student RAs to confirm their assignments.
   2. The Graduate Chair defers to student preferences whenever possible
   3. The assignments are then distributed to students before the start of the term, allowing them time to voice any concerns about their assignments and adjust assignments accordingly. Faculty are informed at the same time and may also request assignment adjustments.
   4. The Graduate Chair aims to assign PSY 2110 (statistics) GA positions to students every other term, given that the workload (10 hours) is greater than most other assignments. If GA鈥檌ng 2110 in two consecutive Fall and Spring terms cannot be avoided, the student(s) will not have to TA the class 3 times in a row.
   5. Requests for assignment changes due to time conflicts should be brought to the attention of the person responsible for the assignment ASAP. Thus, students should watch for emails indicating instructor placements and check for conflicts as soon as possible. In the case of instructor assignments, Once enrollments for courses begin, changes in assignments can only be entertained if a replacement is available.

Work Beyond the 15 Hours

In recent terms, owing to graduate student numbers not rising at the same rate as demand for classes/GAs and TAs, the department has offered some students (typically those in their third year and above) opportunities to take on 20-hour assignments, though the default is 15-hour assignments. Most commonly, this is graduate student instructors (TAs) serving as their own GAs. Serving as an instructor is a 15-hour assignment, and being a TA would be 5 hours more (for a total of 20 hours). Otherwise, there have been opportunities for students who are not instructors to have 20 hours of TA assignments (i.e., having one class with a 10-hour assignment and two courses with 5-hour assignments) or an extra 5-hour TA assignment in addition to a 15-hour RA assignment. When there is the option for 20-hour assignments, these are advertised to all relevant students. The Graduate Chair tries to avoid tasking junior students (in 1st and 2nd year) with extra TA assignments to ensure those demands do not interfere with research and class priorities.

Note: For students with graduate appointments or with F and J visas, work is limited to 20 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters and 28 hours per week for the summer and other academic breaks.

Summer Position Assignments

Summer GA/TA assignments are open to all graduate students (until they have completed their 5th Spring). There is an application process for GA department assignments with the Graduate Chair, who emails students about their preferences. As in the academic year, assignments are based on departmental need, student preferences, and student qualifications. Assignments are prioritized for students most qualified for specific positions. Students are not guaranteed funding during the summer, but efforts are made to secure funding for all who apply.

Note: For students with graduate appointments or with F and J visas, work is limited to 20 hours per week during the fall and spring semesters and 28 hours per week for the summer and other academic breaks.

Financial Literacy Resources

OHIO Financial Literacy

• a variety of resources from the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships to assist you in every part of your financial wellness journey.

• resources to help you succeed financially, academically, and personally

• has a resource guide for psych grad students of color that contains a section on Financial Planning/Debt