In
order to obtain a student visa, all international
students are required to demonstrate that they have
sufficient funds to cover their first year of academic
study in the U.S. For
students who applied for admission during the 2001-2002
academic year, the requirement was that they must
show total guaranteed funding of at least $12,240
if they receive a graduate assistantship and $22,082
if they do not have an assistantship. [Most updated
fee requirements, please refer to Tuition,
Fees, & Term Bill Info. (click "Info
for Students and Parents" in new window)]
For
most students in the doctoral program, international
and domestic, the primary
source of on-campus support is graduate assistantships.
These assistantships pay students for doing work
as teachers in our teacher education program or
for doing research in one of our research projects.
Included in an assistantship are a salary, medical
insurance, and tuition credit covering a maximum
of nine credits of course work per semester that
the student is employed. (See Graduate
Teaching/Research Assistantships for more detailed
information about assistantships.)
However,
there are no guarantees about receiving this kind
of support. After being admitted to the program,
a student needs to examine the assistantship opportunities
that exist in the college for the following year
and apply directly to the
specified employer stating your qualifications
and your desire to fill the particular opening.
Hiring decisions are worked out between each employer
and the students who apply. The assistantship options
are frequently more limited for international students.
Teaching
assistantships
are often difficult for international students
to obtain, especially at the start of their program,
because these positions generally require someone
who is experienced as a school teacher, fluent
in English, and knowledgeable about U.S. education.
Research
assistantships
are somewhat more flexible about these things,
but it is generally difficult for new students
to obtain one of these positions. The principal
investigators in these projects naturally seek
out students with whom they have already had some
contact, who have established themselves academically
within the program, and who have already received
some doctoral research training.
International
students find that their opportunities for obtaining
assistantships are considerably greater in their
second and later years in the program than in their
first year.
Once they are established on campus they enjoy a
number of advantages that increase their competitive
position in seeking assistantship opportunities:
They develop a more comfortable command of written
and spoken English; demonstrate academic competence
through successful completion of course work; acquire
research training that is helpful in working on
research projects; become known to the faculty members
who are in a position to hire graduate assistants;
gain familiarity with major issues in the educational
literature; gain exposure to and knowledge about
teaching and learning in American schools; and acquire
insight into the philosophy and practices that characterize
the teacher preparation program in the college.
They
still may find themselves at a disadvantage in seeking
positions in the teacher preparation program because
of their lack of experience as teachers in American
schools, but they will be in a much stronger position
in seeking both teaching and research assistantships
after they have spent some time pursuing doctoral
study on campus.
Because
of the difficulty in obtaining graduate assistantships
at the start of their doctoral careers, many international
students pay for their doctoral study in other ways.
The most common situation is that they receive financial
support from their home government or home educational
institution. A number of them also draw on their
own savings or receive support from their families.
Many find other sources of income through assistantships
elsewhere on campus – for example, a student with
strong graduate training in mathematics may teach
a lower-level math class for the math department,
or a student may work on a research project in another
college. In addition, many students seek out non-professional
student work on campus, such as working in building
maintenance or the cafeteria.
There
is a chance that an international applicant can
win one of the competitive multi-year fellowships
offered by the college or university. (See "Fellowships
for New Students" for more detailed information
about these multi-year fellowships.) These awards
go to a small number of domestic and foreign students
(perhaps three or four out of an entering class
of 25) who have the highest scores on the Graduate
Record Examination and the highest grade point averages.
They combine fellowship money with graduate assistantships
to provide a total stipend of between $14,000 and
22,000 per year. However, in order to qualify for
one of these awards, a student must be able to demonstrate
employability as a graduate assistant, which (as
already noted) is often difficult for new international
students.
In
addition, international students are eligible for
small competitive fellowships (ranging from $2,000
to 6,000) that provide support for the first year
of study only. These too are allocated in large
part based on GRE scores and grades. Generally,
almost one-half of the incoming students receive
some form of fellowship support from one or another
source during the first year in the program. Note
that these fellowships are not sufficiently large
in themselves to meet the financial proof requirements
for a student visa, but must be combined with assistantship
support or the personal funds of the students in
order to meet the financial test for international
students that do not have government funding. Also
note that fellowship money is intended to help exceptional
students get started in the program; it is not available
to provide ongoing supplemental support for students
who do not have adequate funding from their government
or from assistantships during the course of their
doctoral career.
In
summary, if you do not have adequate government
funding to cover the expenses of graduate study
at MSU (and to meet visa requirements), you will
need to qualify for a graduate assistantship or
be prepared to pay for graduate study out of your
own private funds.
Your
chances of obtaining assistantships rise to the
extent that you can demonstrate some combination
of the following forms of expertise,
especially the first two:
1)
fluency in spoken and written English (as shown
by a high TOEFL score, polished analytical writing
samples, and professional experience using English)
2) experience as a teacher in elementary
or secondary education (especially in English
language schools)
3) experience with education in some other
role (such as administrator, policymaker, researcher,
or university instructor)
4) experience doing social science research
5) experience in a particular subject matter
area, through advanced study and/or professional
work within the field.
If
you are accepted into the program and you do not
have government support, you should be prepared
for the possibility that you will not be able to
win sufficient assistantship and fellowship support
to pay for the costs of graduate study (travel,
tuition, and living expenses) and to meet visa requirements.
In this case, you will need to pay for these expenses
out of your own funds, at least for the first year.
If other funding does not come through for you and
if the financial burden of paying for your expenses
privately is too great for you to bear at that point,
then you should defer your enrollment in the program
until you can work out the financial support issues
in a way that is more manageable. The point in exploring
the issues surrounding the funding of international
students in such detail is not to discourage you
from applying to the program but to provide you
with a realistic evaluation of your chances for
gaining the kinds of university funding that you
may need in order to pursue doctoral study in the
program in Curriculum, Teaching, and Educational
Policy.
Please
be assured that we place a high value on the participation
of international students in this program. Between
a quarter and a third of our students are from other
countries. We find they contribute a great
deal to the richness of the program by bringing
a wonderfully diverse array of experiences with
and perspectives on education around the world.
And international students who are in the program
can tell you, as they have told us, that the program
provides them with a powerful academic experience
in educational scholarship and prepares them professionally
for a wide range of educational roles in their home
country or elsewhere in the world.
