Additional Information About Tennessee's PhD Program

  1. Stipends: Students supported on a teaching assistantship (TA) are paid a 9-month stipend of:

    The stipend is adjusted as other stipends are adjusted.

    The length and amount of stipend for students supported on research assistantship (RA) or administrative assistantship (AA) is negotiated by the student and the faculty member.

    These stipends go farther in Knoxville than in most other cities because of Knoxville's low cost of living. If you look at Yahoo's Neighborhood Information web-site, you will find that the cost of living index in Knoxville is 94 compared with a national average of 100. That means that you'd have to receive a stipend of $15,950 (15,000 * 100/94) in an average American city to have the same standard of living that a $15,000 stipend affords you Knoxville. If you are interested in how Knoxville compares with other cities, go to Yahoo's web-site and find the cost of living index for that city. For example, New York City's index is 122, which means that you would have to receive a stipend of $19,500 (15,000 * 122/94) to have the same standard of living in New York City that a $15,000 stipend affords you in Knoxville.

  2. Faculty Interaction: Our goal is to get students involved as quickly as possible in the research process. Consequently, each student in the PhD program is assigned a research faculty mentor as soon as the student enters the program. The faculty mentor is responsible for advising the student and also for getting the student involved in a research project as soon as the mentor judges it to be feasible. The student has the option to ask another faculty member to become the student's official advisor at any time, depending on the student's research interest. If the faculty member accepts, the advisor thereafter becomes the student's mentor as well.

  3. Conference Travel: It is very useful for students to be able to attend conferences and start meeting the leading researchers in their area of interest, even if the students are not presenting a paper at the conference. Tennessee provides students that are supported on departmental funds and are in good standing, guaranteed funding of all reasonable expenditures up to $800 each year to attend a conference of the student's choice, subject to the approval of the students' faculty mentor. The students are required to seek funding from the university for their travel. The department will provide up to $800 if the university declines to provide funding or, if university funded, will provide the remaining funds up to a total of $800.

    Students supported on faculty research funds should be able to attend at least one conference per academic year with reasonable costs up to $800 paid for by the faculty's research funding.

  4. Teaching Opportunities: If a student is interested in landing a position in academia, it often helps to have teaching experience on the vita. At Tennessee, a student who meets a number of requirements may be offered an opportunity to teach an undergraduate computer science course under the mentorship of a faculty member who normally teaches that course. The course shall be one that the faculty feels comfortable allowing a particular student to teach. The requirements that the student must meet are:

    1. has completed the research proposal defense,
    2. has the approval of the student's Ph.D. committee, and
    3. has acceptable spoken and written English abilities.