Graduate Financial Aid
Please make sure to check out the general scholarships website that has more information on scholarships and fellowships available for students at: http://www.cs.fsu.edu/scholarships/
Graduate students in the Department of Computer Science are generally supported by the following different means:
Research Assistantships: Faculty members within the department have a number of research grants and contracts that support graduate student assistants. The hiring decisions are made by the individual faculty members who are the principal investigators of the various contracts and grants. These faculty members have access to the Application for Admission forms that students have submitted to the department. A few students are offered research assistantships upon admission. The majority of research assistants are recruited from the students who come to FSU with some other form of support and then make contact with a principal investigator during their first or second semester. Qualifications for a research assistantship include demonstrated potential for research and sufficient background in the research area to make a contribution to the project that is paying. Interested students might look at the Department of Computer Science web page listing research grants, or follow some of the links to faculty research group web pages starting from the departments' research groups and research projects web pages.
Federal Scholarship Program: For more details regarding this program see Information Security Scholarship Programs
Teaching Assistantships: The department employs a large number of teaching assistants. Recipients are selected by a faculty committee from the Application for Admission and Assistantship or Fellowship forms that students have submitted to the department. In addition to academic qualifications, the committee considers attributes that are likely to affect an individual's ability to teach, including spoken English fluency. Prior teaching experience is valuable but is not a requirement.
System Administration Assistantships: The department typically employs between 6-8 graduate assistants as apprentice system administrators.
Fellowships: FSU has several universty and college-level fellowships. For further information, see:
- Fellowship web page of the Office of Graduate Studies, which lists a number of FSU and external sources of fellowships
- Harris Graduate Fellowship
The Harris Corporation, headquartered in Melbourne, Florida established an endowment in 2001 to provide an annual fellowship for highly qualified Florida State University computer science graduate students. One award of $17,000 is given annually to a student that is eligible to receive a US security clearance, to be paid as a tuition waiver and an hourly stipend as a Research Assistant within the department. Summer internships at Harris Corporation are available and encouraged for awardees. Interested students should submit an application, unofficial transcripts, and a resume' to the undergraduate advisor in 203C Love by the 19th of February prior to the desired award year. Awardees will be announced at the Annual Computer Science Awards Ceremony, held in April.
Other Jobs: Some students find jobs outside the department, on or off campus. The department maintains a web site to help students locate jobs, but such positions are more frequently found -- once a student is here on campus -- via the informal "grapevine" of faculty and peer student contacts.
How to Apply for Financial Aid
To apply for a fellowship or assistantship, a student only needs to complete the Application for Admission. All Computer Science graduate applicants will be considered for an assistantship through the department, unless otherwise sponsored by a third party (e.g. Military, Government of Origin). For those international students required to take the TOEFL exam, a score of 620 (Paper Based) or 105 (Internet Based) or 250 (Computer Based) is necessary to be considered for an assistantship through the department.Additional information on financial aid is available from the FSU Office of Financial Aid.
Tuition & Fee Waivers
Students on fellowships or graduate assistantships generally receive a partial waiver of tuition (excluding fees), in addition to a generous stipend ranging from $13,500-$17,000 depending on the type of award received.
Students who are US residents from states other than Florida should apply for Florida residency as soon as possible, in order to qualify for in-state tuition. Please follow the link to the application form to become a Florida resident.
Out-of-state and international students who are awarded an assistantship may still qualify for a waiver of the out-of-state portion of tuition, if they belong to certain special categories and fill out a special application. The best means for International students to qualify for a waiver of out-of-state tuition is through one of the International Linkage Institutes. Each linkage institute has its own application process.
For example, Chinese students can apply through the Florida-China Linkage Institute
Comparing Financial Aid Offers
When a student compares financial aid offers from different universities it is important to look at both the direct payments (stipends) and tuition waivers (also known as tuition grants). For example, suppose School A says they offer $32K per year and School B says they offer only $12K per year. Is School A making the better offer? Maybe not. Suppose School A is not offering a tuition waiver and chargesyou $12K per year in tuition you may end up with only $10K for expenses, while if School B is offering a tuition waiver on top of the $12K, that might turn out to be the better offer. You also need to look at the costs of living in each area.
