The Graduate Program

Summer Programs and Support

Summer Support

In recent years, all graduate students supported during the academic year have also been supported in summer. The different types of summer support include:

  • Ten 11-month VIGRE traineeships (academic year plus two months the following summer)
  • Ten 2-month VIGRE summer stipends at $4500 each
  • Two summer REU assistantships
  • Two to four summer internships
  • Teaching assistantships
  • External grant money for summer graduate student research funded by faculty members' personal grants

Summer Activities

The UGA Mathematics Department has a rather broad summer training program, designed to enhance the activities related to the VIGRE grant during the academic year. An overview may be found on the VIGRE Summer Program webpage. Summer activities may include:

  • Participation in the VIGRE Summer School: this is a two-week workshop for graduate students and postdocs, run each summer on a different area of mathematics. The first Summer School workshop, in 2009, was on multivariate splines. The 2010 topic will be Lie theory.
  • Participation in other summer research workshops (e.g., MSRI, Park City, etc.)
  • The graduate summer course offered by a faculty member. Students receiving summer support are strongly encouraged to sign up for this course if they have not already seen the material. [3 credit hours]
  • The summer graduate student research seminar (see below) [3 credit hours]
  • The summer graduate student teaching seminar (see below) [3 credit hours]
  • Qualifying exam study groups [3 credit hours each]
  • Specialized graduate seminars
  • Dissertation research or writing
  • Student reading or study groups on specific topics
  • Reading courses with faculty

Requirements

All supported graduate students must sign up for at least 9 credit hours in the summer. The different types of summer funding will carry different requirements and/or duties. These include:

  • Students on summer research support are required to remain in residence for two months during the summer, preferably during the through session (June and July). Exceptions to the residency requirements will be made for students participating in off-campus workshops, conferences, or internships.
  • Students on research support (e.g., VIGRE, faculty grant, on-campus internship) will be required to sign up for the summer Graduate Student Research Seminar. This seminar meets approximately one and three-quarter hours per week for 8 weeks in the summer; the time may be adjusted in future years depending on the number of participants wanting or required to give talks. The seminar has the traditional format of a research seminar where graduate students will present either their own research or other research that they are interested in. Students on VIGRE or Internship support will be required to lecture in this seminar.
  • Students on VIGRE support and students who will be teaching their own course for the first time in the Fall will be required to sign up for the Graduate Student Teaching Seminar. This is a seminar in which students present and then discuss and critique short lectures on elementary subjects that they will be teaching. The seminar will meet for a total of 30 hours during the summer, the precise schedule to be determined by the seminar coordinator. Exceptions to this requirement will be made for some students depending on their proposed program of study during the summer and their level of teaching proficiency.
  • All students receiving summer support (of any kind) are required to submit a report on their summer activities at the end of the summer.

Applying For Support

Support decisions for the summer are made each year in the spring by the Graduate Committee. Students will be asked to submit proposals to the Graduate Committee by March 1 describing a program of mathematical activities for the summer. Support decisions will be based on your performance during the academic year and on your activities proposals. Here is a template for a summer proposal.