They are generally not assigned full responsibility for teaching 4 to 6 credit hours. The student's thesis research may be related to that assistantship, but is not necessarily a part of it. Depending on when the research assistant comes to a research project, he or she may be involved in the planning, collecting, data, analysis of data, or writing of the final report. We encourage all graduate students, regardless whether they are on assistantship, to be involved with research and teaching activities through independent studies, voluntary collaboration on faculty projects, and teamwork efforts with other graduate students. Each graduate student is assigned desk space, a mailbox, and an email account.
All students have access to a department computer lab.
The Master's Degree takes about 1.5 to 2 years to complete if a student takes full course loads each semester. Students on assistantships often take longer to finish, about 2 to 2.5 years. International students who need to work on language skills may also take longer to complete the program.