Current Graduate Students

Research & Academics

• Graduate Research Opportunities and Brochures
• Graduate Handbook 
• Courses
  • Graduate Courses
  • Full List of Courses (offered this semester or not)
  • Practice Exams
  • Degree Requirements
• Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training

Full-Time status requirements

Full-time enrollment requires:

Fall and Spring semesters

• For Masters without assistantship: 9 credits per semester
• For Masters with assistantship: 6 credits per semester
• For Doctoral without assistantship (this category includes students with a fellowship, which is distinct from an assistantship): 6 credits per semester
• For Doctoral with assistantship: 3 credits per semester
• For Doctoral students who have passed all required comprehensive exams (subject exams and oral subject exam, and fully approved in grad plan): 1 credit per semester

Note 1) Tuition waivers for assistantships are 9 credits for both Fall and Spring Semesters.

Note 2) International students on a visa (e.g. F-1) must maintain full-time status in Fall and Spring Semesters

Summer semester

• During the summer semester students can be supported in different ways and the choice depends on your status in the program and your research group:
  • Hourly appointment: no enrollment is required and there is no tuition waiver. Health insurance is covered if you were enrolled in preceding Fall and Spring Semesters
  • Assistantship (Research or Teaching): a 3–credit minimum enrollment is required for all types of assistants with 1-credit minimum for doctoral students successfully completing all comprehensive exams. The tuition waiver is for 5 credits.
  • For Ph.D. students past comprehensive exams with a summer (only) research assistantship following a spring assistantship, you might be appointed on a 1-credit non-fringe research assistantship appointment https://hr.msu.edu/ua/hiring/graduate-assistants/no-fringe/
  • If you have a fellowship, enrollment requirements and credit limits depend on the fellowship type

Note 1) International students can be supported on any of the above listed ways during the summer. They do not have to be enrolled during summer in order to maintain their visa status. However, they must enroll if they have an assistantship.

Documents and Resources

• Draft Dissertations for Review
• Forms for Graduate Students
• Source of LaTeX format thesis templates
  • This template is based on the original version by Prof. C.E. Weil, and edited by Dr. H. Thurston to meet the requirements of Spring 2023)

Graduate Student Organizations 

• Physics Graduate Organization (PGO)
• Women and Minorities in Physical Sciences
• Spartan Chapter of the National Society of Black Physicists
• Links at other MSU sites of Interest to P-A graduate students
• More...

Events & Meetings

• Events info
• Physics and Astronomy Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - to get access, you need to sign in with your msu.edu account, not your google or other account.