Here are some questions visiting prospective graduate students frequently ask the graduate students. The answers are just the informal opinions from some current grad students!
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Academics
What are the academic requirements for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees?
The M.S. degree is earned upon satisfactory completion of 7 required courses (the “core curriculum”) and at least 3 additional electives. The Ph.D. includes the M.S. requirements and additionally the completion of a research-based qualifying exam, a general (candidacy) exam, and a dissertation defense.
We strongly recommend consulting the department’s Graduate Mentoring Program handbook for the most detailed and up-to-date information on the Ph.D. program structure and requirements. In the case of any conflicting information between the handbook and this page, assume the handbook is correct.
What will my class schedule look like?
Generally, enough classes are offered per quarter to give you a full 10-credit schedule, though you have the option of taking or auditing any class at the University (for which you are qualified). Typically students take two 3-credit courses (either two core classes, or one core and one elective) per quarter, and fill the remaining credits with 1- to 2-credit seminar courses such as journal club and colloquium. You may also choose to sign up for research credits (this is what is known as a “600” course) with a faculty member of your choice, as long as you both agree beforehand on a topic and so forth. This can go from a small one quarter reading project to a labor intensive several quarter observational/data analysis one, and often results in some work (either theoretical or observational) that is published.
Most students take standard classes for their first two years here and then concentrate almost exclusively on research classes with faculty in later years, with some exceptions for certificate or dual degree programs. After you have received your master’s and passed your qualifying exam, you may take “800” level dissertation credits.
Will I need to be a Teaching Assistant?
Everyone must serve as a T.A. for at least three quarters before they get their Ph.D. Typically, grads T.A. their entire first year to meet this requirement. In addition, some of the night and summer classes have traditionally been taught by upper level grads. Most permanent jobs in astronomy involve some amount of teaching, and we try to prepare our grads for this.
If you aren’t supported on a fellowship or research grant, you will be given the opportunity to earn a salary by being a T.A. This is not guaranteed during the summer, but historically the department has not had any problems finding support for graduate students who choose to stay with the Department during the summer (good thing because summers are so nice in Seattle!).
What does TAing look like?
Being a T.A. typically involves running a discussion section that meets in conjunction with a large lecture in one of the introductory Astronomy courses offered (here is the page for one of the courses offered every quarter, Astro 101). For standard introductory courses of ~150 students, there will be about 4-5 grad student T.A.s; more experienced T.A.s are mixed with newer T.A.s so that they will have some help with their responsibilities. The other classes you might TA for are Astro 150 (The Planets), Astro 102 (1 TA; basically 101 for science majors), Astro 480/481 (1 TA; upper-level undergrad observation and data reduction courses), and sometimes Astrobiology 115 (three TAs but available for grads from all AB departments). There are also TA positions available for online-only courses.
What other responsibilities will I have besides my own classes?
Your main responsibilities will be classwork and any research you choose to pursue. If you’re a T.A., you’ll also be responsible for teaching two sections of about 25 students each and some fair fraction of the grading for the course (the maximum number of hours you can spend on T.A. work is 20/week. In practice the number of hours varies significantly, with the peak being around exam times!).
There are also a small number of paid part-time positions (~2-4 hrs/wk) available to graduate students, such as planetarium coordinator and Pre-MAP advisor.
Graduate students are also encouraged to spend time honing secondary skills such as instrument design, software development, and effective teaching. These are the extras which can give you the edge in the search for a satisfying career upon graduation, either in astronomy or in other fields.
Research
I would like to pursue research in “x”. Does anyone here do “x”?
The best way to find out is to check out the faculty research page.
If you’re planning on doing mostly observational research, you should check out the information we have here on the Apache Point 3.5m telescope. It is available to the department for about 1/4 of the nights each year, and the proposal cycle is currently quarterly, with greater priority given to thesis-related proposals by graduate students. The telescope is capable of optical and infrared imaging and spectroscopy and the plans are for more capabilities in the near future. See the APO web page for more details.
I’m interested in big data. How can I get involved in data science?
For students who want to supplement their astronomy education with data science skills, the Advanced Data Science Option is recommended. The advanced data science option is open to anyone who is interested; students just have to get the consent of their advisor and send an email saying you want to do it. Students must complete 3 out of 4 possible data science related classes on top of the courses required by the astronomy department and attend a 1 hr/week seminar for 4 quarters. This does NOT involve funding of any sort; it’s just extra coursework designed to prepare students to tackle data science problems.
This program is run by the eScience institute and encourages interdisciplinary work between participating departments, including computer science, statistics, chemical engineering, genome sciences, biology, and oceanography. Participating in these programs guarantees that you will be exposed to ideas and scientific approaches outside of astronomy.
I’m interested in the astrobiology program; what is it like?
Astrobiology is an intrinsically interdisciplinary field. The UW Astrobiology (UWAB) program offers 2 graduate-track options: 1) Graduate certificate in astrobio and 2) Dual-Title PhD in astrobio. Both tracks require almost the same interdisciplinary coursework: ASTBIO 501 + 502 (two 4-credit blitz that launches you into astro disciplines and topics); ASTBIO 575 + 576 (1 credit astrobio seminar and colloquium); a professional career development course (a super helpful class that covers what to expect and how to prepare yourself in academia and industry careers; it culminates in a mock proposal panel which familiarizes you with proposal writing AND critiquing/selection); and a cognate course outside your home department (students in astro often choose statistics, compsci, atmospheric science and geology courses that also benefit their research). These courses must be taken on top of our required astro classes (yes, it’s a lot of classes, but definitely manageable).
To go the extra mile and get a PhD in astronomy and astrobiology, you must participate in 3 UWAB workshops (these are super fun! past workshops include excavating dinosaur bones in Montana, studying microbial mats in Yellowstone, and learning to be an oceanographer on a UW research vessel); conduct a research rotation outside your home department (and often outside UW) for a quarter; and most importantly, your dissertation project must be astrobiology-related (see the program’s research areas here). Chances are that if you’re interested in the astrobiology program and willing to go through with all the requirements, your PhD is astrobiology-related (a committee determines astrobiology relevance, but this is basically a formality if the AB faculty in astronomy have signed off). There is almost no reason for an astronomy PhD student to choose the certificate over the dual track, unless you are leaving the program with a Master’s or you change your focus of study midway through.
The Astrobiology Program currently has some funding for TAships available through ASTBIO 115 in the fall and funding for your research rotation quarter, but that might not always be the case. Check with your advisor and the AB Program Director (currently Professor Vikki Meadows). Professor David Catling in the Earth and Space Sciences department currently approves rotation assignments. He also maintains a list of potential projects and mentors on campus, so ping him if you can’t think of one. You’re encouraged to plan your rotation at the end of your second year and do it your third year. In reality, the quarter students do their rotation ranges wildly from second year to last year, and locations range from UW to NASA centers to international collaborations. Just don’t let it sneak up on you. The quarter after the conclusion of your rotation you must give a ~30 minute talk at an astrobiology program seminar.
University & Department Resources
What health insurance benefits am I entitled to?
You can visit the University’s Graduate Appointee Insurance Plan page for all of the technical details. Here are the basics: you get free dental insurance, free optical insurance (good for exams and lenses/frames/contacts up to $100 or so) and free health insurance with the preferred provider being the University of Washington Medical Center, probably one of the top five hospitals on the West Coast (the insurance pays 90% of the cost of using the hospital, and there’s a $75 per quarter deductible). You get totally free health care for minor health problems at the campus clinic, Hall Health.
What kind of facilities do the grad students have access to here?
The Physics and Astronomy Building (PAB) is state-of-the-art, with plenty of windows, spacious offices and nice classroom facilities. There is the e-Science institute on the 6th floor of the building with beautiful views and meeting rooms, as well as study spaces. All grad students have offices shared by at most two other people. Undergraduates who wander into office hours always compliment us on how nice they are.
Astronomy graduate students at the University of Washington have access to an extensive array of superb computing resources. Each grad student in our program has his or her own Linux desktop computer. When these computers are not being used by their owners, they are added into our department’s “Condor Pool.” This is a system which manages a network of idle computers (usually 30-60) and allows them to be utilized for high-power research tasks that require the use of many computers simultaneously. All of our grad students have accounts for this pool and many use it on a regular basis.
In 2015, the Student Technology Committee (STF) awarded several nodes on the Hyak supercluster to the High Performance Computing Club (HPCC). All graduate and undergraduate students are now eligible to receive free access to Hyak nodes through the HPCC. (Also – there’s a backfill queue, so “shadow” nodes are available at some times beyond the student ones). To get started, take a look at the HPCC website and create an account. There are some requirements to get access to the nodes, depending on your experience with supercomputing and/or Hyak. At most you will have some reading to do on the Hyak Wiki. If you become a member of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) research group you will have access to additional dedicated VPL nodes on Hyak as well.
In addition to large amounts of processing power, the graduate students in our department have a vast amount of disk space for data storage. In the last three years, our graduate students have acquired 8.5 terabytes of disk space to store research data. This breaks down to roughly 300 gigabytes per student.
Lastly, many of our graduate students spend a great deal of time traveling to conferences and workshops. To help financially support these and other research-related activities, the department offers grants through the Jacobsen Fund for graduate students, which accepts applications every quarter.
Grad Life
What is Seattle like?
It doesn’t rain here all the time. We just tell people that so they won’t move here. During the winter months, the days are pretty short and it rains for much of the day for at least half of the days—vitamin D and daylight lamps are highly recommended! The other half of the days from October through April or so tend to be partly to mostly cloudy with rare periods of a few sunny days in a row. On the other hand, the summer months (from May to September) are just gorgeous, with long warm days and temperatures most often in the 70s to 80s.
Seattle offers a wide variety of things to do, from arts & music to outdoor adventuring to restaurants and breweries; any of the current grads will happily tell you about some of their favorite local activities!
What is the cost of living in the Seattle area?
Up-to-date data on Seattle apartment rental prices by number of bedrooms and neighborhood can be found on sites such as Zumper and Rent.com. As of mid-2022, typical studio apartment rents were in the range of $1300 to $1800 a month.
For incoming graduate students, the minimum stipend before taxes for the 2021-2022 academic year was $2510/month, assuming no outside fellowship support or previous master’s degree. This assumes a 50% FTE (Full Time Employee) pay rate, or 20 hours/week, with the other 20 hours covered by classes and/or research credits. Our department makes an effort to ensure students are paid at a 60% FTE rate whenever possible, or ~$3000/mo. Up-to-date baseline pay rates for research and teaching assistant positions may be found on the UW graduate school TA/RA salary page under the “Regular (Non-Variable Rate)” salary schedule links; see the 2021-2022 version here. Graduates receive pay increases after obtaining their master’s degree and passing their general exam.
Quarterly fees not covered by tuition waivers typically amount to $250-$300 (fellowship students are exempt from these).
Electricity is cheap in Seattle (especially compared to the East Coast). For a 1 bedroom, the yearly average is ~$50/month. W/S/G is more expensive, but typically you only have to worry about it if you’re renting a house, which can run $150-$300 depending on usage. Apartment buildings usually include W/S/G in rental price. For older apartments/homes, gas is used for heating and/or cooking, which for a 1 bedroom averages ~$20/month.
What about transportation?
As a grad student, UW issues you a U-PASS (fully subsidized and absorbed into your student fees), which allows you to use all six central Puget Sound transit agencies (buses, the LINK light rail, and even water taxis): King County Metro Transit, Community Transit, Sound Transit, Pierce Transit, Everett Transit and Kitsap Transit. There are several routes that go to and from the University in a variety of directions at regular 10- to 30-minute intervals every day. It’s quite easy to find a good place to live near a bus route, and many students here survive easily without owning cars. If you want to live even further away from Seattle itself in order to save a little money, there are a few good inter-county public transportation options, but you may have less flexibility as far as bus schedules are concerned. Commuting on a daily basis in and out of Seattle is not fun, though. See here for details on the UPASS and transit tools.
If you’re interested in commuting via biking, Seattle is a very bike friendly city (despite the hills). The Burke-Gilman trail (which runs East-West and is flat) is a major means for people who live in Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, Sand Point, and Wedgwood neighborhoods to commute to the department. Your bike ride North-South will have more hills, but there are many greenways and roads with protected bike lanes. See here for a bike map.