There are occasionally problems which graduate students run into. Here is a record of some situations which have occured, along with ideas on how to prevent recurrences. It is presented as a "not-to-do" list:
- Get a Low GPA. A simple way to get into trouble in our
graduate program is to let your cumulative GPA slip below 3.0. If this
happens at the end of one semester, the most immediate bad thing is
loss of tuition benefits for the following semester. The Graduate
School enforces this rule quite strongly. If you can not pay for
tuition by a certain date after the start of a semester, you will
automatically be dropped from any courses for which you have
registered. If you are an international student, this could mean
falling out of compliance with a visa. There is no good cure for this
problem, only prevention. Even an endless supply of money can only
keep you registered as a student. Having your courses count toward a
graduate degree requires getting grades at the 3.0 level or above.
- Avoid or ignore advising sessions. All graduate students
are given an opportunity to meet with advisors to go over their choice
of classes. In several instances, problems could have been mitigated
or eliminated entirely if students had taken advantage of graduate
advising. In one case, a student registered for an unrealistic number
of courses. The student actually was told not to take such a high
courseload by an advisor, but chose to ignore the advice.
- Throw away your tuition benefit form. In an instance where
a student actually did this, tuition was charge to the student's
account. It was the student's last semester and the student was unable
to graduate only because of outstanding debt to the University.
Please note that under current rules, the student would not have been
able to remain registered during that last semester without tuition
benefits.
- Leave the US and get into visa trouble. On multiple
occasions, students have left the country and could not return when
expected for reasons of visa problems. If this happens to you, you
might think this is not your fault. However, it is your
responsibility as a student to be at the University when you need to
take exams, attend courses, or to fulfil research/teaching
obligations. Beware, if you fail to live up to these responsibilities,
you may lose tuition benefits, RA/TA salary, fail out of
exams/classes, or all of the above. If you
must go abroad, and if you are at risk for visa problems, make
arrangements with your advisor to minimize the impact of a delayed
return.
- Fail to get your undergraduate degree. This is rare. But
an easy way to trigger a problem is to come to graduate school without
adequate documentation to prove to an administrator that you have a
bachelor's degree from an accredited institution. Take care of the
paperwork. Anticipate and avoid such problems if you apply and get
accepted before you actually finish your undergraduate degree.
It is our experience that if you are in a situation like this,
expect that eventually administrators will find the problem.
It may even take a year or two. But they will find it.
- Ignore the rules. The University of Utah has well over 25,000 students. Thus, exceptions to University rules and regulations, considered on a case-by-case basis, are extremely rare. Many have tried to "tweak" The System. Many have failed.
Our Handbook
Most of the information in these sections plus a whole lot more is included in the Unofficial Graduate Handbook, which is written by graduate students, for graduate students.
