Student Handbook: First YearFirst Year Checklist:
UW NetIDYou'll need a UW NetID to access computing resources, including email, online registration, and access to personal records. Create your NetID by visiting this page: http://www.washington.edu/computing/uwnetid/. You will need the Private Access Code sent to you when you initially accepted admission to the UW. Your NetID is also your UW email address. For example, if your NetID is "stressedout" then your email address will be "stressedout@u.washington.edu". Arrival, Paperwork, Keys, etc:Incoming students are expected to begin no later than September 16 (which is when your funding begins), although Autumn Quarter doesn't begin until September 28. This will give you time to look around the labs and meet faculty and students. Other than attending scheduled orientation activities, there is nothing you are required to do during this time other than meet with faculty (to discuss potential lab rotations) and grads and generally get a feel for the department. Most students will arrive earlier in the month to look for housing and acclimate to Seattle. The UW will want proof of Measles vaccination before allowing you to register. Please check the Immunization Website for more details. The UW requires all employees (including students receiving stipends / salaries) to complete an online Affirmative Action Data form: http://www.washington.edu/admin/eoo/aadf/. You'll need to use your UW NetID to access this site. This should be done at some point during your first month in the dept. Please see Brian Giebel (Foege S-340) sometime before classes begin to check in & go over program requirements. There's no need to make an appointment, but giving me a call (206-616-7297) or sending an email (bgiebel [at] u.washington.edu) before you stop by will help, since I'm often away from my desk. You'll also fill out employment paperwork at this time, so please be sure to bring either a passport or photo ID & social security card. International students should bring visa paperwork. International students will need to check in with the UW International Students and Scholars office. This can now be done online: http://iss.washington.edu/stu/ns.html 2011 Orientation Activities:The following orientation activities will take place during your first two weeks in the dept:
Payroll:Paydates are generally the 10th (for the second half of the preceding month) and 25th (for the first half of the month) of each month, unless these dates fall on a weekend or holiday. Direct deposit may be set up via the Employee Self-Service section of MyUW. Questions may be directed to Linda Loveless (llov [ a t ] uw.edu). Academic Calendar:Check the UW academic calendar for dates of instruction, registration, and holidays. Student ID Cards:Stop by Odegaard Library (ground floor) to get your student ID card. You will need to show legal photo identification in order to obtain your ID card. Please note that you will be given a student ID number, and the UW uses these, rather than Social Security Numbers, for identification. Registration / Insurance / Course Sequence:You will receive registration information from the UW Graduate School the summer before you begin your studies. You should wait until arrival at the department to register. Be sure not to lose the PAC (Private Access Code) number the Graduate School sends to you with the registration info. You'll use this code to set up your UW NetID, which you'll need for almost everything at the UW, including registration. Online registration: Course registration is done online by going to the "myUW" section on the University of Washington home page. Insurance: US Citizens and permanent residents should decline the standard UW student insurance coverage while registering for courses. You will automatically receive Graduate Appointee Insurance Program coverage. Your coverage will begin October 1. International Students will automatically receive Graduate Appointee Insurance Program coverage but will also need to sign up for standard UW student insurance each quarter when registering. Please be assured that once the system recognizes that you have GAIP coverage, the standard UW student insurance charge will be removed. This cumbersome system is in place to ensure all international students at UW have insurance coverage. Your coverage will begin October 1. You will need the 5 digit Schedule Line Number (SLN) which identifies a particular course. These are found on the online time schedule. Some courses will require add codes; you can get these from the graduate program assistant (currently Brian Giebel, Foege S-340, bgiebel [at] u.washington.edu) either in person or via email. Faculty codes used to register for research courses (Genome 501, 600, 800) are now available online. If you are registering for a non-Genome Sciences course that requires an add code, you should get the code from the graduate program assistant in that particular department. Electives: Please keep in mind a graduate school requirement that you complete at least 18 graded credits by the time you take your General Exam, which is done during Spring Quarter of your second year. Some of the core coursework is graded, some is not, so you will need to take some graded electives during your first two years. Generally speaking, any 500-level science course related to your research interests is an acceptable elective. 400-level courses may also be taken for graduate credit. You'll need to check with the Graduate Program Coordinator, Dr. Manoil, to be sure a 400 level course is acceptable. In addition to courses offered by the department, Genome Sciences students often take courses from other programs, including Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Conjoint, Microbiology, Pathology, Molecular - Cellular Biology, and Statistics, among others. You should check the online time schedule to see what's available. You're expected to have some background in Biochemistry. If not, this can be made up by taking electives in these areas during your first year. Please check with Dr. Manoil for suggestions on which courses might be appropriate for you. The department also recommends that you have some background in Statistics - one of the core courses, Genome 560, will fulfill this requirement. You should sign up for a minimum of 10 credits each quarter (except for Summer, when you should sign up for 2 credits). You'll want to vary your credits in Genome Sciences 501 to accomplish this. For example, if your core courses and electives total 6 credits, register for 4 credits in GENOME 501. Registration for more than 10 credits is fine, as long as you don't go over 18. The following course sequence is effective beginning Autumn 2011:
Autumn Quarter:
Winter Quarter:
Spring Quarter:
Summer Quarter: Tuition / Funding:Tuition: Tuition is covered by the department or individual labs, except for approximately $360 in student fees (including the cost of a U-Pass) each quarter, which are the responsibility of the student. Funding: In addition to the tuition waiver, GS grad students also receive salaries / stipends of $27,348 per year. While the gross salary is the same for all students, net amounts vary according to the funding source. Taxes: With the disclaimer that I am not a tax expert and am not offering financial advice, here's essentially how it works: Federal taxes aren't withheld from stipends funded by NIH training grants, since these aren't considered "salaries" per se, but students will owe taxes on this income in April. Often, students who are US citizens / permanent residents receive the majority of their funding from these sources during their first two years in the program. Funds from non-training grant sources are often used to supplement the amount provided by the training grants, and these are generally taxable. For example, you may receive $21,180 of your salary from a training grant -- federal taxes aren't withheld from this. They will, however, be withheld from the remaining amount. Clear as mud. Stipend amounts are listed on form 1098 which you can access via MyUW. International students and U.S. citizens / permanent residents who have been in the program for longer than 2 years are generally funded via research assistant appointments through their thesis labs. Federal taxes are withheld from these salaries, so while gross pay is the same, the net salary will be less. The benefit of sorts is that you won't have to come up with all this cash at tax time. The simplified version: Students funded by RA appointments pay taxes now; students funded by training grants pay taxes in April (or, much more often, make quarterly payments). For more help: The resident tax expert in Student Fiscal Services is Lichang Wong - lichang [ a t ] u.washington.edu. Student Fiscal Services holds tax workshops for graduate students several times each Spring - if your funding source includes a training grant, please consider making time to attend one of these to save yourself some frustration in April. Moving Expenses: You may want to consider deducting moving expenses when figuring your taxes. IRS publication 970 spells out the rules. Their chart indicates you must pay taxes on your stipends, but not for funds spent on textbooks or other supplies. More tax info is available on the UW website. Establishing Washington State Residency:Update 1/31/08: (International students are not allowed to apply for Washington residency, and so need not bother with this) You will need to apply for resident status in your second year by filling out the application posted here: http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/residency.html. The verbiage on the website makes it appear impossible that residency will be granted. However, here's clarification from the Residency Office (unfortunately not posted on their website): "I know the website makes it seem if you take more than 6 credits a quarter, you cannot become a resident. This is due to the presumption you are only here for educational purposes. A student is able to overcome this presumption by obtaining all of their Washington legal ties within the first 30 days, plus having a fulltime job and financial independence. Although TA/RA's are on record as only working 20 hours a week, we are aware that these students typically work more than 20 hours a week. Therefore, we consider a TA/RA who has had an appointment for one year as overcoming the presumption they are here for educational purpose, thus they are allowed to apply (and usually obtain) in-state resident status." Radiation Safety Training:Most of you will end up needing to work with radioactive materials in the course of your thesis work. To become qualified to do so, you will have to undertake formal radiation safety training, and it is best to do that in your first year. Otherwise, you might well end up not being allowed to perform key experiments in your thesis research. Training is offered by Environmental Health; you should check their website for a schedule of courses offered. On the other hand, if your thesis is very unlikely to include any experimental work (such as if it is to be entirely computational), then you might not need this training and do not have to take it now. You may be required to attend other lab safety courses; these will be scheduled for you by the Graduate Program Assistant. Asbestos Training :The UW now requires all staff and students to complete asbestos training each year. This can be done online in a few minutes at: http://www.ehs.washington.edu/pubcookie/train/asbestosg/index.shtm Outside Funding :All students should apply for outside funding. This should ideally be done early in your first or second year. Your own fellowship will look great on a resume and will also make your thesis advisor very happy... Funding sources include: NIH grants home page - the basic gateway into NIH grants of all types - has information links to forms, instructions, processes etc. See the left side of the page for 'types of grants', F series Predoctoral NIH fellowship (F31) detail instructions - review for the full scoop on how to complete these forms, what gets included in the applications, where To target your NIH search for funding even more specifically, check out the specific NIH institute that might support your work. Review the NIH roadmap (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/) and then check out the NIH home page for institute list: http://www.nih.gov/icd/index.html National Science Foundation funding opportunities can be found at: http://www.nsfgrfp.org/ When to apply: Graduating seniors, prior to or during first year of graduate school, beginning of second year. Deadlines: Various deadlines depending on fellowship; see web site for specific deadline date and GRE deadline date. Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowships - http://www7.nationalacademies.org/fordfellowships/index.html Eligibility: U. S. Citizen or national with evidence of superior academic achievement (such as grade point average, class rank, honors, other designations); Award: Approximately 60 Predoctoral Awards at $20,000 per year for up to three years. U. S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) Computational Science Graduate Fellowship - http://www.krellinst.org/csgf/ Eligibility: U.S. Citizen or permanent resident; Students must be planning full-time uninterrupted PhD study at a U. S. University; Students in their first or second year of graduate study in the physical, engineering, computer, mathematical, or life sciences are eligible to apply for the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. Exceptional senior undergraduates who can meet all the requirements listed here may also apply. When to apply: Graduating seniors or first or second year graduate students. Award: Payment of all tuition and fees; Yearly stipend of $31,200; Allowance of $1,000 annually for research; up to $2,475 for computer workstation; renewable up to four years. Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship - http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/SCGF/information.html
Many non-profit organizations are using a web portal for application submission called Proposal Central. This website shows a list of upcoming application deadlines, the sponsors, and provides links to the sponsors so you can find out more. https://proposalcentral.altum.com/ And finally, there is the primary federal application portal, grants.gov.
Departmental Functions:You are required to attend these weekly departmental functions: Research Reports, Genome Sciences Seminars, and Journal Club. A listing of topics and speakers can be found on the Genome Sciences homepage. Lab Rotations:First year students generally rotate through three labs, with the option of a 4th rotation over Summer Quarter if need be. If you decide to do a 4th rotation, please check in immediately with Dr. Colin Manoil (manoil [at] u.washington.edu). Please follow this link for a complete listing of Genome Sciences Training Faculty. When you begin a lab rotation, you should immediately meet with the faculty member to find out what her/his expectations are for your rotation. Be careful not to focus solely on other courses and neglect your lab rotation. This is an important part of your training and you will be expected to spend a significant amount of time in the lab and interact with other lab members as well as the PI. You should meet again with the PI after a few weeks, to be sure you are meeting expectations. The open rotation / transfer policy gives you the flexibility to do your third rotation with a faculty member from any participating department (Biochemistry, Immunology, Microbiology, Pathology). This program also gives you the option of transferring to one of these programs if you find it to be a better match for your interests. For more information, check the School of Medicine website. Rotation Talks :The Department has recently decided to have first year students give a brief (10 minute) presentation discussing their lab rotation research each quarter. These will be scheduled as part of the Research Reports series during the last two weeks of the quarter. Please check the Research Reports schedule for your presentation date. First Journal Club Talk:Your first Journal Club talk should be given Spring Quarter. Journal Club provides a forum for information exchange and for practice in organizing and presenting research material. Journal Club presentations should provide a critique of published experimental or theoretical work. Generally it is only possible to adequately present the material in one or two papers. While it will be necessary to give an introduction which draws upon earlier work, the presentation should not be simply an overview of an area of research. The paper to be presented should be chosen, and the presentation developed, in consultation with the thesis advisor or another faculty member who knows the topic better. First year students will be contacted by a faculty member who will help them prepare for this presentation. Even the most experienced person requires a considerable amount of time for preparation; the paper should be chosen at least two weeks in advance. Choosing a Thesis Advisor:Toward the end of spring quarter, you will choose a Thesis Advisor. Normally, the advisor will be one of the full-time Genome Sciences faculty (Akey, Berg, Borenstein, Brewer, Bruce, Dunham, Eichler, Felsenstein, Fields, Furlong, Green, Hawkins, Jarvik, King, Lee, MacCoss, Manoil, Monnat, Nickerson, Noble, Olson, Pallanck, Queitsch, Shendure, Sibley, J. Stamatoyannopoulos, Swanson, Thomas, Villen, Waterston, Wolf-Yadlin). However, if the desired training opportunity is not available within the department, a request for supervision of thesis research by an adjunct or affiliate faculty member is allowed. It should be recognized that, unlike regular Genome Sciences faculty, adjunct faculty members are not under any obligation to sponsor Ph.D. theses, since they have primary responsibilities in other departments. Once you've selected a chosen a thesis lab, you and your advisor should sign the Summary of Mentor Responsibilities form and submit this to the department grad program assistant. This new requirement is intended to ensure faculty members are aware of their responsibilities to the student. You are encouraged to read the UW Graduate School's guide, "How to Obtain the Mentoring You Need: A Graduate School Guide". Things to consider when choosing a Thesis Advisor -- articles posted on ScienceCareers.org: First Year Feedback:At the end of the year, you will receive feedback from a faculty committee regarding your performance in courses and lab rotations. Choose Supervisory Committee:Setting up your supervisory committee has now been moved back to Autumn Quarter of your second year in the program. Please see the second year guidelines for instructions on how to do this. Please be sure to read through this entire section before making any travel arrangements. 1. Determine who pays: Please note that training grant travel funds can only be used while you are supported by the grant. They cannot be accessed thereafter. If your funding is coming from your mentor's research grant, your travel funds will need to come from that source. In this case, you do not need to check in with Brian - the person in your lab responsible for purchasing can make your travel arrangements. If for some reason it is easier for you to continue to have Brian make your travel arrangements, you are welcome to do so - just provide him with the lab budget number. The UW Graduate School also offers very limited funding: $300 for domestic travel, $500 for international. Please see Brian to apply. 2. Provide an estimate of all travel costs: We are now required to put all travel components on a single purchase order, whenever possible. What this means is that when you are ready to book your flights, please also provide an estimate on your other expenses to Brian or whoever is arranging your travel so that they may all be included on the same purchase order. This would include items like conference registration, hotel, etc. Meals, if not provided by the conference, will be calculated at standard per diem rates. 3. Book your travel: The department must pay for flights and conference registration up front. Please do not pay for these items on your own and then ask to be reimbursed. Once you have checked in with Brian Giebel (if your travel is being paid by a training grant) and are ready to book your travel, please follow the steps below. Please be aware that if you take personal time before or after the conference and this results in a higher airfare, you may be asked to reimburse the difference to the university. Contact the current agency of choice, Tangerine Travel (http://www.vacation.tangerinetravel.com/group+and+corporate+travel/). Please be sure to let them know this will be paid by UW Genome Sciences. Once you’ve been emailed an itinerary, please send this to Brian - or have the travel agent include him on the initial email - so that he may fill out the purchase order paperwork. To pay for your conference registration, provide the registration info needed (either to fill out a form or enroll online) to Brian. 4. Reimbursement: Please note that we will need a copy of your flight itinerary and conference schedule in order to process any reimbursements. Lodging and meals will be reimbursed after your return from the conference. Receipts are required for lodging reimbursement. If your lodging costs are higher than the allowable per diem rate, please include a brief explanation (e.g. it was the designated conference hotel, only place you could find space, etc) along with your receipts. If you are sharing a room, please be aware that this may complicate your reimbursement. Ideally, you should obtain a separate receipt for your share of the lodging, or at the very least, the receipt you submit should have your name on it. In a case like this, you would do well to consult with the GS fiscal staff before departure. Meals will only be reimbursed if they are not provided by the conference, and will be reimbursed at standard per diem rates. Since per diem rates are used, you do not need to save meal receipts. If you choose to skip a conference dinner, etc, you cannot be reimbursed for that particular meal. You will need to provide receipts for ground transportation. Insufficient Academic Progress:You should meet a minimum of once per year (twice per year recommended) with your supervisory committee. If the committee is concerned about your research progress, they will suggest ways to get back on track. If problems persist, your mentor may opt to put you on academic probation. This involves notifying the Graduate School with documentation of the circumstances. It does not normally affect your funding or registration. If problems continue past this point, you may be put on final probation. Students are normally on final probation for one quarter only.After that point, the department will either recommend that you be removed from academic probation or that you leave the program. First year students who do not reach faculty expectations in coursework or lab rotations may also be put on academic probation. The Graduate School's guidelines are posted here: http://www.grad.washington.edu/Acad/gsmemos/gsmemo16.htm
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