Information for New Graduate Students - University of Houston
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New and Returning Students

Information for New Graduate Students

Dates and locations for all events listed below are available each semester at this web page link.

For all new students:

  1. All new students (except M.A.) should come to UH at least one week before the start of the semester. Typically, during this week they attend orientation and placement events.
  2. Attend College Orientation 
  3. Register for classes before the semester starts. See the section below for Course Selection
  4. Departmental Graduate Student Handbook
  5. Feel free to email the Math Graduate Student Representatives with questions related to life as a graduate student in our department: mathgsrs@central.uh.edu

 

Ph.D. students with a Teaching Assistantship (TA):

  1. Attend Department Orientation for new TA.
  2. Attend Evaluation for new TA to determine class assignments. The evaluation typically takes about 10 minutes, answering some basic questions in Calculus.

 

For Mathematics, M.S. & Applied Mathematics, M.S. students:

Take the Placement Exam before the semester begins. The purpose of this exam is to help selecting courses.

  • The Placement Exam covers basic topics in undergraduate Real Analysis and in Advanced Linear Algebra.
  • If a student has weak performance in the exam, the student will be informed by the Director of Graduate Studies, and has to take one, or more courses to improve his/her math background.

 

Graduate Course Selection:

Current Course Offerings: You can find an up-to-date list of the Mathematics Department's graduate and 4000 level undergraduate courses from our web-site link. Use this list and these course/section numbers in deciding on your courses for the semester. Both the Director of Graduate Studies and the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies will be happy to advise you on possible choices.

Each course has a four-digit course number. The first digit indicates the course level. Courses beginning with 3 are junior undergraduate courses; beginning with 4 are senior undergraduate courses; beginning with a 5 or more are graduate courses. Courses beginning with a 5 are typically offered online. The second digit in the course number indicates how many credit hours that course is worth. Typically each course has 3 credit hours. As examples, 4311 indicates a 3 credit undergraduate course, while 5311 is a 3 credit graduate course.

Only the courses begging with a 5 or higher will be counted towards graduate degree.

Teaching Fellows (TF), Research Assistants (RA), and Teaching Assistants (TA) must enroll for 9 credit hours each semester.

During your University orientation you will receive instructions on how to register for courses. This information can also be found at this link.

 

IMPORTANT! Please remember that students must be registered during their graduating semester. International students can not exclusively register for online courses.

 

Dropping/Withdrawal:

If a student wishes to drop a class or withdraw, they must actively do so using myUH self-service and/or completing the required paperwork. Simply skipping your required payments has never been an acceptable method for withdrawing from the university. Despite any communications from the university that you may be dropped for non-payment, students should never assume that they will be dropped.

 

Leave of Absence: Students who want to take a break from their studies and do not want enroll into classes for a particular long semester (Fall or Spring) have to submit the Leave of Absence (LOA) form. The form has to be submitted for approval before the semester begins. If the LOA form is not submitted on time, students will be automatically terminated. Students are allowed to submit this form at most three times during their studies at UH.

 

Credit Transfer: Students can transfer graduate classes taken previously at other Universities. Students have to submit the Graduate & Professional Student Petition form to transfer credit. For classes taken outside of UH prior to the enrollment into any UH graduate program, all credit transfers have to be requested during the FIRST SEMESTER at UH. For outside classes taken concurrently with UH studies, all transfer requests have to be submitted prior to the graduating semester. In addition, approval for taking an outside class concurrent with the UH studies must be obtained prior to enrolling into that class. No credit transfer requests will be granted during the graduating semester. A detailed description of the class syllabus and other study/test material (e.g. book used for the class, catalog description, etc.) must be attached to the petition. Credit transfer does not apply to the MSDA program.

 

Forms: Forms for graduate students can be found at this link.

 

Graduate Academic Policies: Please review the Graduate Academic Policies available at this link.

 

Travel Support for PhD students: PhD students who intend to present their research work at scientific conferences can request financial support from the College of NSM using this Cullen Fellowship Travel Grant (CFTG) link.

We highly encourage students to apply to this grant if they want to attend a conference. Moreover, no departmental support will be granted if students did not make an attempt to receive the CFTG. I.e. students must apply for the Cullen Fellowship Travel Grant first. If the application is denied or if the grant is insufficient, then they can request departmental support. Applications for the CFTG require 25% commitment from the department, thus students must discuss these applications with the graduate director first. If the student's advisor has external funding which allows travel support, we expect a 25% commitment from the advisor.

In order to apply for the departmental support (or receive 25% commitment for the CFTG from the department) students must submit the same information (abstract required) as for the CFTG in pdf form (one file) at least 2 months in advance. The graduate Studies Committee will discuss these requests and make a recommendation.

 

Other Information: