- Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
- Academics
- Graduate Studies
- Assistantships, Tuition Waivers and Fellowships
Assistantships, Tuition Waivers and Fellowships
An important difference between undergraduate and graduate study is that, quite frequently, a university pays graduate students to go to school - not the other way around.
The primary sources of support are graduate teaching assistantships, graduate research assistantships, tuition waivers and fellowships. Approximately 20 of our full-time graduate students are currently supported by one of these sources.
Additionally, doctoral students in our program spend at least one semester as an intern, usually in a government or industrial research laboratory. In some cases, the laboratory hosting our student is able to provide a salary as an alternative to an appointment as a graduate assistant.
Graduate Assistantships
Assistantships provide a stipend and a full waiver of tuition. Students are required to pay their own fees (including activity, athletic, facilities and services fees in addition to a technology surcharge and medical insurance).
Graduate students may be employed as teaching or research assistants, depending on department needs and student interests.
Our department employs about 17-18 graduate students as GTAs. A full-time GTA is expected to work about 20 hours per week.
In our lower-level courses (STAT 100 and STAT 200), an instructor lectures to approximately 60 students, three times a week. The 60-student lecture section is then broken down into two recitation sections of 30 students each. A GTA meets with three of these recitation sections once a week to answer questions, go over homework problems and give quizzes. The remaining 9-13 hours each week are spent preparing for recitations, grading homework and other relevant duties.
There are other types of GTA assignments, as well. Some GTAs will serve as a grader for an upper-level undergraduate statistics course. Experienced GTAs may be given the opportunity to lead their own STAT 100 or 200 class (with about 60 students). Many of our GTAs actively seek this opportunity to develop their teaching skills and to relate to younger students in the classroom setting.
Each semester, graduate students are assigned to the department's Statistical Consulting Services, where they assist the faculty consultant in solving applied statistical and real-life problems coming from clients from within the university or businesses from DeKalb and the greater Chicagoland area.
Advanced doctoral students in the department become full partners in research with their professors and can sometimes be appointed as GRAs while they work on their dissertations.
If you are interested in an assistantship within the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, you must submit a Graduate Assistantship Application to our department office, either in person or via your student email. *
For more information about graduate assistantships, please contact our Director of Graduate Studies at dryu@niu.edu.
Tuition Waivers
The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science has a limited number of tuition waivers available for underrepresented students and for recruiting purposes. If you are interested in a tuition waiver, please contact our Director of Graduate Studies at dryu@niu.edu.
Fellowships
Northern Illinois University offers fellowships on a competitive basis to outstanding entering students at the master's degree level and also to advanced students who are completing their doctoral dissertations. There are several very attractive fellowship programs for minority students as well. Fellowships allow students to devote themselves full-time to graduate study, since there are not duties connected with them. Typically, a fellowship recipient will take four courses (12 credit hours) per semester, while a GTA will only take three courses (nine credit hours) per semester. Fellowships awarded in national competitions (by the Department of Defense or the National Science Foundation, for example) can also be used to support graduate study at NIU.
Contact Us
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
DuSable Hall 359
