All inquiries about our graduate program are warmly welcomed and answered daily:
grad@math.lsu.edu
Financial Aid
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Several types of financial assistance are available to graduate students in the Department of Mathematics at LSU. These include teaching assistantships, research assistantship, fellowships, and tuition awards. Most graduate students receive some form of financial support; however, priority for support goes to PhD students, which includes all students who have applied to earn the PhD in Mathematics as their highest degree at LSU. It is understood that PhD students will normally earn an MS degree along the way, but a prior MS degree is not required to be a PhD student. The Department automatically considers each applicant for all available forms of financial aid. If your application is completed by January 15, then we will be able to consider you for all available types of financial aid. More information on the various types of the various types of financial support are presented below.
Graduate Assistantships
The majority of current and incoming mathematics graduate students are supported by Graduate Teaching Assistantships, which currently pay academic-year stipends from $20,550 to $21,350. If combined with a Graduate School Enrichment, the maximum stipend can be as high as $24,350 per academic year (9 months). Tuition and the nonresident fee are waived for Graduate assistants, but there are other fees that are required of all students. For students desiring to continue their studies in the summer, summer assistantships are awarded on the basis of seniority. There are also Research Assistantships and Service Assistantships which are funded by faculty grants supporting various projects in both research and education. The stipends for these vary considerably and can be supplemented by Enrichments as described below.
Graduate Assistant Duties
The academic year duties of a teaching assistant consist most often of teaching an average (over the academic year) of 4.5 credit hours per week of elementary mathematics, or an equivalent in other duties. However, most first-year teaching assistants do not teach: they have the equivalent in non-classroom duties.
Some of the typical duties of a graduate assistant are:- Teaching a class such as College Algebra, Trigonometry, Business Calculus, or Calculus
- Conducting recitation sections for Calculus
- Working (primarily tutoring) in the College Algebra computer lab
- Grading
All graduate students participate in a seminar called Communicating Mathematics to instruct them in good teaching methods, as well as in good skills for communicating mathematics for all purposes.
Graduate Assistantships are expected to continue through the fifth year of graduate study, with the possibility of support in a sixth year.
Graduate School Enrichment Awards
Exceptional applicants for doctoral study from all countries are considered for the Graduate School Enrichment Awards. The Graduate School Enrichment Awards pay an annual supplement of $3000 in addition to the basic assistantship or fellowship stipend. Enrichments are valid for up to four years, provided the student meets the requirements of the award.Board of Regents Doctoral Fellowships
Applicants who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and show exceptional potential for doctoral study are considered automatically for the Board of Regents' Graduate Fellowships. The Board of Regents' Fellowships pay an annual stipend of up to $30,000 for up to four years, may be combined with a Graduate School Enrichment Award (explained above), and the cost of tuition is waived for these fellowships. Board of Regents' Graduate Fellowships are for year-round study, including the fall, spring, and summer terms, and entail no teaching or service duties. However, fellows who anticipate careers in college or university teaching are allowed, upon request, to teach for experience.
GAANN Doctoral Fellowships
The Department holds a grant from the GAANN Program (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need), which is a program of the US Department of Education. The GAANN grant provides doctoral fellowships which pay a stipend up to $34,000 per fiscal year but capped by the actual financial need of the student (as determined by the University's Office of Student Aid) and they also cover tuition, fees, and some other educational expenses. These fellowships are for US citizens and permanent residents, and they carry duties equivalent to only half of those for a Graduate Assistant. This frees valuable time and energy for the selected students' study and research. The fellowships cover study for the fall, spring, and summer terms.