Process after you accept our financial support and admission offer:
The physics department will receive from the Graduate School a message asking if we should grant you admission. We will say, yes, if we have offered you financial support/admission. After that, the Graduate School will send you an admission letter online which has a link to the online enrollment form.
If you are interested in doing summer research (from mid-May to mid-August), please send Email to yk@physics.umn.edu. Also contact professors you are interested in working on research with. When/if you and your professor come to agreement, please send me Email about your summer research plan (~ half page).
There is an Orientation Program for new graduate students that you are required to attend, scheduled to begin on August 18, 2008. During this program, there will be a special seminar program designed to prepare you to teach the laboratory and recitation section classes, which will be part of your teaching assignment. The first day of Fall Semester classes is September 2, 2008. Please notify us of address changes over the summer, as we will be sending you further orientation information.
U.S. immigration law requires proof of citizenship as a condition of employment. Acceptable proof of citizenship is (1) a current or expired passport or (2) a picture I.D. (preferably a driver's license) and a birth certificate or original social security card. If you do not have these items, please arrange to get them before you come to Minneapolis.
We will be glad to help you resolve any problems you might encounter in coming to Minneapolis to begin graduate study. We have collected some information about housing http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/doctor_physics/housing. The results of housing cost survey can be seen at http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/doctor_physics/students/housing_cost_survey
The Physics Department will receive a message from the Graduate School asking if we should grant you admission. We will say, yes, if we have offered you financial support/admission. After that, the Graduate School will send you an admission letter online which has links to the online enrollment form and the online financial certification.
The I-20 is processed after the Graduate School receives each of these forms. The earlier you get the forms to the Graduate School, the sooner you'll receive an I-20. If everything is in order, it can take up to three weeks after the Graduate School receives the forms to issue the I-20.
The University sponsors a language program beginning on Thursday, July 24, 2008 for Teaching Assistants whose native language is not English, which you are required to attend. (Note that the exemption of TOEFL does not mean that you are exempt from this program since a major component of this program is about teaching culture in the U.S.) Due to the visa rules, you are not allowed to arrive in the US more than 30 days before the start of the English training. This year, the Graduate School will be listing July 23 as the start date for those attending this training, so June 23 is the earliest you can come to the US.
You are required to pass the test at the end of this TA language training session to be certified to teach in the fall. It is important that you make every effort to pass. During the training session, you will not only learn how to communicate better in English -pronunciation, listening, grammar, etc. - but also how to be a good instructor at an American university.
Because of the constraint on the entry date imposed by INS mentioned above, we will only be able to offer you a short summer research opportunity to non-US passport holders. If you managed to get your visa early, it could start on and after June 23, 2008.
There is an Orientation Program for new graduate students that you are required to attend, scheduled to begin on August 18, 2008. During this program, there will be a special seminar program designed to prepare you to teach the laboratory and recitation section classes, which will be part of your teaching assignment. The first day of Fall Semester classes is September 2, 2008. Please notify us of address changes over the summer, as we will be sending you further orientation information.
We will be glad to help you resolve any problems you might encounter in coming to Minneapolis to begin graduate study. Many questions including those related to visa and housing can be answered by
International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS):
190 Hubert H. Humphrey Center
301 19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Telephone: (612) 626-7100
Fax: (612) 626-7361
Email: isss@umn.edu
URL: http://www.isss.umn.edu (general)
http://www.isss.umn.edu/new/housing.html (housing - particularly useful for temporary housing for new international students)
We will be glad to help you resolve any problems you might encounter in coming to Minneapolis to begin graduate study. We have collected some information about housing http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/doctor_physics/housing. The results of housing cost survey can be seen at http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/doctor_physics/students/housing_cost_survey. You will find some information about temporary summer housing (in a dorm) which will be useful when you arrive in Minneapolis for the first time.
For students from PR of China, the student organization: Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars offers new students help in adjusting to American life. Their web page is http://www.isss.umn.edu/programs/smallworld/CHhost.html. If you are aware of other such organizations, please let us know and we will list them here.
Here are several things regarding transcripts/credentials and English language requirements that will assist us in processing your application efficiently. We hope this information will make it easier for you to provide us with the transcripts/credentials we require. Please read the sections on transcripts/credentials from U.S and international schools, and English language proficiency, if they apply to you. You will receive another notice indicating what specific information we are still missing, but it is to your advantage to provide it to us before we contact you. You also will receive a notice when your application is complete.
To check on the status of your application in the future, the most up to date information is in your ApplyYourself application record. For access to the ApplyYourself system click http://www.grad.umn.edu/prospective_students/apply_online.html Then click on “check the status of your application”. If you have misplaced your PIN or password, click on “Need to look up your PIN or Password?” and then follow the instructions. Do NOT use “Create Account” to obtain this information.
FORGED CREDENTIALS: Due to a perceived increase in forged transcripts/credentials, we will write to the schools of selected students and verify their transcripts/credentials. If the student's transcripts/credentials are forgeries, we will drop the student from The Graduate School and may refer the matter to law enforcement authorities for prosecution.
See below for the types of credentials required from various countries. However, we can consider you for admission if you mail a photocopy or fax us a legible copy of your credentials. If you do that, do not send official or certified credentials at this time; if you are admitted, we will request official or certified credentials from you when we send you the admission letter. Credentials can be mailed to The Graduate School address listed below, or faxed to 612-625-6002.
All international applicants who have attended universities that issue official transcripts on request must submit such credentials; the transcripts must be received in The Graduate School Office of Admissions directly from the schools. An official English translation should be attached if the transcript is not in English.
If the grading system employed is not shown on the credentials themselves, a separate statement from the university is required giving this information.
On CERTIFIED or ATTESTED credentials, the certifying official should write “this is a true copy of the original” and should then sign and seal each document. Applicants may not certify their own credentials.
If your native language is not English, you are required to take one of the following:
The operational standard for admission to the Graduate School is a TOEFL score of 79 on the internet-based TOEFL with section scores of 21 on writing and 19 on reading (213 on the computer-based TOEFL, 550 on the paper-based TOFEL) or a MELAB score of 80, or an IELTS score of 6.5. Individual departments may have a higher requirement. Scores must be less than two years old.
TOEFL information is available on the web at: http://web1.toefl.org/ at U.S. embassies and consulates, information agency offices, and educational foundations, or by writing to TOEFL Services, Educational Testing Service, P.O. Box 899, Princeton, NJ 08541-6151, U.S.A.
MELAB information is available from The English Language Institute, MELAB Office, University of Michigan, 500 East Washington Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2028, U.S.A. Overseas testing is available on a limited basis in selected countries.
IELTS information is available on the web at: http://www.ceii.org/ or by writing to IELTS International, 825 Colorado Blvd, Suite 112, Los Angeles, CA 90041.
An official report of the TOEFL, or MELAB, or IELTS scores should be sent to The Graduate School. Our TOEFL institutional code is 6874.
If you have completed 16 semester credits/24 quarter credits (within the past 24 months) in an academic program in a recognized institution of higher learning in the U.S., you do not need to submit the TOEFL, or MELAB, or IELTS scores as part of the application procedure.
The address to have your transcript and official TOEFL scores sent:
Graduate School
University of Minnesota
309 Johnston Hall
101 Pleasant St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0421
USA