Most students in mathematics receive a teaching assistantship or fellowship, which provides a tuition waiver plus a stipend. Support is usually provided for a five-year period. Teaching assistantships include a health insurance plan. Graduate Student Teaching Graduate students with only a bachelor's degree do not teach during their first year. Instead, they participate in an intensive training program run by the Department's Director of Teaching, including teaching seminars, supervised classroom experience, and mentoring by faculty and senior graduate students.
Most graduate students teach one course per semester, usually first year calculus.
Teaching assistants are allowed considerable independence. They prepare their own presentations, make up their own assignments, quizzes, tests and examinations, and assign final grades. This extensive teaching experience is valued by our graduates and can help significantly in finding a job. Facilities Vanderbilt has a research-level library, with over 2 million volumes. The mathematics collection is excellent, both in books and in journals.