| Geology Program | West Virginia University |
Frequently Asked Questions and Responses
| 1. What
opportunities are there for interaction between students
and faculty? There are numerous opportunities throughout the semester for students and faculty to interact. At the beginning of the semester we have a Meet Your Professor picnic in which new students. old students and faculty meet socially following the TA assignment process. At the department level these opportunities include a pizza get-together near the beginning of each semester and a holiday pot-luck feast at the end of the fall semester. At the program level, geology runs a colloquium series, which offers opportunities for casual conversation several times throughout the semester. Visiting speakers are usually taken to dinner and there is also the opportunity for limited numbers of students (2 or 3 at a time) to join with faculty and speaker over dinner. Any coordination of dinner attendance by students would be welcome. In fact, on most occasions, students do not accompany us on these dinner outings. An organized plan on the part of the students to distribute dinner attendance among the graduate students over the course of a semester hasn't been undertaken in the past, but is recommended. Family, research and community obligations often make it impossible for faculty to participate in all these activities. The same is true for students. When the opportunities for student faculty interaction fail to address your needs, please make every effort to meet with faculty individually so that faculty can be made of aware of your suggestions or concerns. . |
| 2.
Is financial support available for conference attendance? Limited funds are available from the Department of Geology and Geography, the Shumaker Fund, and the Dean's Office for students who are presenting talks or posters at professional conferences. If you are planning to submit or have submitted an abstract to a meeting or conference you should speak with your advisor about applying for financial support from the sources listed above. Your requests for department support should be made by your research advisor to the Associate Chair and Graduate Program Chair. To request funds for travel through the college, submit a Graduate Student Travel Application Form to the Dean. These forms can be obtained from the Deans office (201 Woodburn). Again, your requests for funding through the College with your research advisor and Grad Program Chair. The Grad Program Chair will, in general, coordinate student travel and lodging when several studentsplan to attend the same meeting. Generally speaking, students are encouraged to
present their research at meetings and conferences, so
some financial support is usually forthcoming. Students
who are presenting have the highest priority; there is
usually little or no financial support remaining for
students who are only attending a conference. However, we
will organize van travel and group-rooms for local GSA
meetings, AGU meetings, and (when close) selected
national meetings. Students desiring to attend meetings
without presenting should let the Grad Program Chair know
they are interested in attending a particular meeting. In
general, the department will not sponsor student travel
to distant meetings unless the student intends to present
a paper or poster. . |
| 3.
Does the department offer summer support? Research Assistantships Summer support is usually guaranteed only for Research Assistants (RAs). An RA is a student hired specifically to conduct research planned by a faculty member under their research grant or contract. Students working as RAs for a faculty member should clarify the term of their support, and the expectations regarding work they are to perform. The faculty member is obligated under research contracts to complete individual tasks on an agreed to timeframe. Students working as RAs under research grants usually have more flexibility in the timeframe in which work is conducted, however, the faculty member responsible for delivering results under the grant (or contract) will usually have specific expectations regarding timeframes in which the student's work is to be performed. Lack of progress on the part of the student could result in withdrawal of support. Frequent communication between the student and their faculty supervisor will reduce the possibility that lack of progress or misunderstandings may arise about the scope of work the student is expected to perform. Teaching Assistants The teaching assistant (TA) is hired to teach a certain number of the geology labs. Their responsibilities also include proctoring of exams in the large introductory classes, and may include keeping the grade book for one of the large introductory classes, and some grading of tests. The TA position is a nine-month appointment; very few classes are taught in the summer so that TA funding is generally not available during the summer. The summer months are critical time periods for the Master's student to make progress on their research. There are several opportunities for sumer support provided through professional societies. The
Shumaker Fund GSA Support . 4. What sources
of funding are available for summer support? . |
| 5. Is it possible to finish the M. S.
degree in 2 years? Yes. Option I: Course work for the M. S. Option I Thesis consists of 24 credit hours plus 6 hours of research. In your initial Graduate Student Advisory Committee meeting, a group of faculty will sit down with you and help you plan a two-year schedule of courses. Ideally, students in Option I should attempt to take 9 hours of course work during their first two semesters in residence and the final 6 hours in their 3rd semester. This leaves your 4th semester open to complete thesis research and complete the writing of, at least, the initial draft of your thesis. Depending on the courses you are interested in taking this may not always be possible. You may end up taking a course during your 4th semester. Critical to the timely completion of the Option I thesis is an early commitment to a research project and research timetable. Students completing the Masters degree requirements in 1 year and 9 months or 2 years are almost always students that identified a research topic during their first semester and proposed their thesis research during their second semester. Also critical to the successful completion of the Masters degree in a two-year time frame is the use of summer months to make substantial progress on thesis research. Most theses are designed so that data required to address the research problem can be acquired and analyzed during the summer time frame. Students should realize that if for financial reasons they must work during the summer, the time required to complete their thesis will increase accordingly. Students in those situations should take full advantage of the resources mentioned above in Question 3. With partial funding for your summer research, you may be able to devote a month or more of your summer to thesis research and that may still make it possible for you to complete the MS in two years. Students taking summer internships gain valuable professional experience and perhaps the commitment of an employer to a full-time job upon completion of their degree. At the same time, the summer internship usually puts thesis research on hold. Consequently, students should understand that finishing the degree in two years may not be possible. The benefits of the summer internship experience usually outweigh the additional time required to complete the M. S. degree. In short - completion of the MS degree in a two year time frame requires careful planning along with an ability to make full use of the summer to make progress on thesis research. Financial planning and adherence to the initial two year plan offer the bset possibilities for successfull completion in the two year time frame. The department makes no promise or guarantee that students will complete their degree in two years. It is possible to do so and there are numerous examples of students that have completed their degree in 2 years or even 1 year and 9 months. There is no stigma attached to taking more than two years to finish the degree. There are a variety of individual reasons why this may turn out to be the case, not the least of which may be that, along the way, you will find new interests. Those interests may mean undertaking a research effort different from that originally planned. Also, because of personal interest, you may take more courses than originally planned, and so on. The graduate school experience is one in which the student very often makes final adjustments in their career vision. It is best to take the extra time to ensure you are on the track best suited to your personal and career goals. The department is generally supportive of students that take longer than two-years to complete the MS. We often provide a 5th semester of support as a TA along with tuition waivers. At the same time we have a commitment to accept and support qualified applicants to the program, and therefore make no guarantees that support beyond 4 semesters will be provided. Option II: The requirements of Option II include an increased course load and successful completion of two research projects. The research projects are intentionally smaller scale than the masters thesis. Option II projects are designed to be completed in a one semester (4 month) time frame. Possible revision to the Option II requirements are currently being considered. Recent Option II graduates are being contacted concerning their feelings about this issue. An update will be forthcoming. . |
| 6.
Can grad students use the vans for conference attendance?
The Department vans may be available for transportation to conferences. Student use of vans does require a faculty sponsor. In other words the conference must be important enough for a faculty member to support use of the vans by grad students. Cost effectiveness is also a factor. It is not cost effective, for example, to send a van with relatively few passengers. Travel distance is also a factor. The closer the meeting the more likely that a van will be available. Competing uses for the vans on the same dates will also be a factir to consider in your plans to use department vans to attend meetings. The following comments provide some additional perspectives on general priorities for van use. The three fifteen-passenger vans owned by the Department of Geology and Geography were purchased primarily for use on field trips. First, and foremost, of course, are the capstone field trips for the three undergraduate degree programs offered by the department: the BS in Geology; the BA in Geography; the BA in Environmental Geoscience. The summer field camp in Geology, of course, places the greatest demand upon the vehicles, both in mileage and time committed. The BA in Geography currently holds its capstone event in the fall (the first time is fall, 2001). The BA in Environmental Geoscience will probably be a spring or early summer course, and has yet to be offered. In addition, the need for vans is also determined by course usage in the two programs (Geology and Geography) and this demand is most often felt on weekends. Indeed, in the past few years, we have had to rent additional vans in order to accommodate all scheduled field trips. From time to time, regional and/or national meetings of the major organizations in each discipline (the GSA national and regional meetings, the AAPG national and regional meetings, the AGU meetings in Baltimore and Boston) have been close enough to give serious consideration to use of the vans to attend these professional meetings. Faculty and students are urged to consider this well in advance of the meetings so that preliminary decisions can be made regarding use of the vans. In the past two years, requests have usually been a semester or even a year in advance. When the Geographers had a regional meeting in Pittsburgh (2000), we made sure that the vans were available for associated activities and as daily shuttles back and forth to the meeting. The bottom line is this: for graduate students who want to explore the availability of a van to attend a meeting, first find a faculty member to support the trip. Be sure to approach the faculty well in advance and document the nature of the meeting, the papers to be given, etc. The presentation of papers and/or poster sessions is a featured aspect of such a request. Attendance to look for jobs or simply engage in interviews, while important to your professional growth, is not likely to justify department van use. . |
| 7.
When will I receive specific details about my semester
teaching assignments? TA assignments will be made early in the first week of classes. Labs are not taught until the second week of classes. This requires that all TAs submit their class schedules in the week preceding the first week of classes. A delay in submitting your class schedule will delay the posting of TA assignments. . |
| 8.
How can class schedule conflicts
be resolved? With the large number of courses offered in this department, in addition to related courses offered in other departments or colleges, it is impossible to resolve all class scheduling conflicts. Students should look very carefully at the courses they would like to take and identify potential schedule conflicts prior to their initial advising session. When schedule conflicts exist, students will have to take the course most useful to their thesis research during their first year. Students need to identify these issues early and bring them to the attention of their advising committee and research advisor. In cases where the background in both courses is believed to be essential to research progress, it may be possible to make arrangements to undertake independent studies to familiarize oneself with basic concepts and background needed to undertake thesis research. |
| 9.
Why are some courses that are listed in the catalogue not
actually offered? The courses that are listed in the University catalog are those courses that have been approved by the WVU Faculty Senate. Senate approval is a complex process that is required for courses that are taught on a regular basis and have an assigned course number. New courses, or courses that are rarely offered, are taught as "Advanced Topics," and often include some designation of the course topic in the title, that will appear on course transcripts. If there is no intention of ever teaching a course again, that course will be permanently removed from the catalog. However, that decision must be made very carefully for once a course has been removed the Faculty Senate must approve it again -as a new course - if it is to be reinstated. This is why courses that are taught infrequently are still listed in the catalog. The Geology Program's web page will attempt to maintain a current listing of graduate courses and when they will next be offered. Courses that are not offered on a regular basis are listed as being available "on demand." This means that a minimum number of students (at least four) must be interested in taking the course. The best way to insure that such a course is offered is for graduate students, individually or as a group, to express interest to the appropriate professor. Sometimes a professor will offer an "on demand" course if the need is apparent based on the interests of newly admitted graduate students. |
| 10.
Can I get a computer in my office? "Hand-me-down" computers from our teaching and research labs are usually reformatted and distributed to graduate student offices. Many student offices now have office computers. In general if a need arises or if needs are not being met the graduate student representatives should put together a short written request for additional computers. Such a request should include justification, a prioritized list of possible locations and demonstrate that the location(s) will be readily accessible to a number of graduate students. If available computers are limited, computers will be distributed in such a way as to reach the largest number of students. Computer requests should be submitted to the computer committee and department chair. Note that availability of extra computers or newer-and-faster computers may be limited and the response to individual requests may not be immediate. For general information about computer availability check with our Computer Systems Administrator, Randy Crowe. . |
| 11.
Can printer quotas be extended? Graduate student print quotas are set at 350 pages per semester. Printing is monitored by software on the department server. The print-monitoring software will prevent you from printing (unfortunately, without warning or notification) if you are over quota. If you cannot print and suspect that your quota is exceeded, see Randy Crowe. Randy can increase a student's print quota with the approval of any faculty member in the Department. Clarification of this issue can also be found in the Guidelines for Use of the G&G Computers. . |
| 12.
Can the department
cover the cost of keys to the computer lab? The department does not have a source of funds to cover the cost of keys. (Lab fees are restricted to instructional use.) The Department does cover the cost of broken and lost keys. In the future, the locks may be changed to ones that use coded plastic ID cards and keys will not have to be purchased. . |
| 13.
Can the department pay for copies of theses? There is no longer a strict university requirement to provide bound copies of theses to committee members and department libraries since all theses are currently made available in electronic form. Actual policy regarding the provision of copies to committee members and department libraries varies from department to department. However, before you can graduate, you do have to pay a $50-$60 fee to the library to have your thesis microfilmed. We have traditionally kept a library of bound theses in the main office. This has served as an effective means for current students to browse contents and explore the research of their predecessors. As such this requirement is probably outdated and should be replaced by a department page consisting of hot links to existing electronic theses. Nonetheless, particularly in geology where large maps and cross sections may form the basic data upon which conclusions are drawn, many faculty prefer a bound copy for their personal collection. Another alternative is for faculty to request submission of maps and cross sections as plot files, which when needed for future research, can be replotted from drum plotters available in the department. Check with the faculty members on your committee. There are instances where faculty are content to have access to pdf versions of theses and do not request hard bound copies. Other committee members may be satisfied with a spiral bound copy of your thesis. In many instances faculty members will offer to pay to have a hardbound copy of a student's thesis prepared for them. The best thing to do is to check with the members of your thesis advisory committee and ask what their preferences are. Don't hesitate to mention your financial considerations. The situation with respect to research assistants may be different. Since a research assistant has been paid to conduct their work, the faculty member may expect the student to provide hardbound copies of their thesis to all committee members as well as the department. More likely, however, funds may be available under the grant or contract to cover the costs of thesis reproduction and binding if required. |