General Information and Resources

Below is general information that current Linguistics graduate students should keep in mind for the 2024-25 academic year.

Academic

Financial

General Info

Academic

Enrollment and Course Planning

  • A tentative LING course schedule for the academic year may be found on the “Courses” page.
  • Check MyUCLA for your enrollment appointment for subsequent quarters. The first day to check MyUCLA for your assigned enrollment appointment time is October 24 for Winter 2025 and January 27 for Spring 2025.
  • The Department’s Study List should be completed by the student and signed by their adviser/Committee Chair by Wednesday of Week 2.
    • First-year students will complete their Fall Study List during Orientation.
  • Graduate students are responsible for registering, enrolling, and making study list changes by published deadlines. Dates may be found on the UCLA Term Calendar and a table of relevant fees may be viewed on the Graduate Student Study List Deadlines and Fees page.
  • The Graduate Student Affairs Officer (Grad SAO) will conduct registration and enrollment audits each quarter to ensure students are enrolled, but please don’t wait for the check to begin enrolling!
  • All students must be registered and enrolled every quarter. Failure to register + enroll by the end of Week 10 will result in an automatic lapse of student status, requiring a petition for retroactive enrollment or readmission to the program.
    • The only students who are not required to enroll are those who are on leave of absence or filing fee status approved by the Division of Graduate Education (DGE).
    • Students who are not enrolled in any units by the end of Friday of Week 2 will have their enrollment locked and can only enroll via an Enrollment Petition.
  • All students must enroll in a minimum of 12 units each quarter. This is to help ensure you meet eligibility requirements for fellowships and academic employment.
  • For help in finding additional courses, if needed, please reference the Enrolling section on the “For Current Students” page, as well as the “Required courses” section for each listed program year.

Committee Formation and Reconstitution

Below are links to the appropriate section on the For Current Students page.

If you wish to reconstitute a committee (add and/or remove members, change someone’s role to Co-Chair or regular member), please contact the Grad SAO. If you wish to reconstitute a doctoral committee and you plan to hold your prospectus defense or file in the next 1 or 2 quarters, please contact the Grad SAO as reconstitutions require formal paperwork submitted to DGE.

Degree Checks

The Grad SAO will send individual degree checks and instructions:

  • At the start of a student’s 5th and 6th quarters (Winter and Spring of Year 2) to ensure that all requirements and DGE forms for the MA stage are completed on time.
  • At the end of a student’s 7th and 8th quarters (Fall and Winter of Year 3) to track process towards the PhD requirements (coursework, Guidance Committee formation).
  • At the start of a student’s fourth year to ensure that all requirements and DGE forms leading to the prospectus defense are completed on time.
  • To all students after the end of Spring quarter.

Students may also request a degree check at any time.

Holds

Students should check for holds periodically: MyUCLA > Academics > “Academic Profile – Holds”. Holds may prevent enrollment and/or funding disbursal. To resolve a hold, please contact the office who placed the hold. Note: Holds are placed and lifted manually. If a hold is due to a pending action, it may take some time for the hold to be lifted by the office that placed it.

Financial

Award Disbursal and Salary Payment

Award disbursal and salary payment from employment follow a separate schedule.

  • Stipends disburse as early as 10 business days before the stipend month, following a schedule set by the University (see “Monthly Awards” table on page 3). If there are no financial holds on a student’s account and eligibility requirements are met, the stipend will disburse.
    • The exception to this timing is a January stipend. January stipends will post to the BruinBill in mid- to late-December, but typically do not disburse until January (usually the first business day).
    • If you are living in on-campus housing, please note that housing charges are included in the BruinBill – there is no separate housing bill. Please be aware that if there are unpaid housing charges when a stipend disburses, the stipend will first be used towards the outstanding charge(s) and any balance will then disburse/refund to you.
    • The “BRUNIDIRECT REFUND” line on the BruinBill triggers disbursal. For students enrolled in BruinDirect, the direct deposit usually occurs one business day after the “BRUINDIRECT REFUND” line appears on the bill.
  • Salary earned through employment as a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) and/or Teaching Apprentice (TA) is paid monthly following the service month. Monthly pay periods may be found here.

ASE/GSR Advance Loan

Students with a 25% or higher TA position may apply for an ASE/GSR Advance Loan, which is an interest-free advance loan equal to 50% of your monthly rate. To ensure on-time submission to DGE, please send an unsigned form to the Grad SAO at least 5 business days before the quarter’s application close date. Instructions are available on the department’s website.

Direct Deposit

There are separate direct deposit systems for awards and salary. Enrolling in one does not enroll you in the other.

  • For awards and any loans, students must enroll in BruinDirect via the BruinBill on MyUCLA
  • For salary, direct deposit enrollment is done via the UCPath Portal > Employee Actions > Income and Taxes > Direct Deposit. Enrollment or updates can only be done when employment is active.

Funding from the Department

The Financial Information section of the “For Current Students” page on the department’s website lists the financial resources from the department, including conference travel funding, summer education funding, and funding for language assistants and experimental subjects.

BruinBill

All students are responsible for checking their BruinBill periodically for fees charged by the Ashe Center, library, or other on-campus units. Charges are due the 20th of the following month it was posted. Failure to pay charges on time may result in the $20 delinquent fee charged every month and possible student account holds (enrollment prevention, financial aid/funding disbursement prevention, suspension of on-campus services, etc). Questions about non-registration/tuition fees should be directed to the charging unit. The Grad SAO may also help in identifying the unit, if possible.

Important Employment Policies

  • Students must have a minimum cumulative 3.0 GPA and be enrolled in at least 12 units to remain eligible for academic employment (ex: TA, GSR) and fee remissions.
  • Students cannot be employed over 50%-time (20 hours/week) on-campus during an academic quarter without prior approval from the Department and Division of Humanities. Both academic and staff appointments count towards this restriction. Please contact the Grad SAO if you would like to initiate the request.
    • Requests to work over 75% on-campus also require review and approval by DGE and must be submitted at least three weeks prior to the beginning of the requested quarter. These requests are not guaranteed to be approved.
    • Students on an F-1 and J-1 visa cannot work over 50%-time during an academic quarter. Students who have advanced to doctoral candidacy may consult with the Dashew Center for any possible exceptions.
      • Students on an F-1 and J-1 visa are allowed to work over 50%-time during intersession periods with no exception needed.
  • Students can be hired as an Academic Student Employee (“ASE”: TA, Reader, Tutor) for up to 12 academic quarters (summers excluded). A hire beyond 12 academic quarters requires prior approval, and students must be advanced to doctoral candidacy and have at least a 3.0 GPA to be eligible. The Grad SAO will initiate the process for Ling students who will be hired within the Department.
    • Requests for a 13th-15th quarter as an ASE only requires Department approval. However, for students beyond their 5th year, an exception request submitted to DGE is required and can only be made on a quarterly basis. Exception requests should be submitted no later than a month before the quarter starts.
    • Requests for a 16th-18th quarter as an ASE requires an exception request submitted to DGE and can only be made on a quarterly basis. Exception requests should be submitted no later than a month before the quarter starts. 18 quarters is the hard limit, set by the UC.
  • Recipients of DGE fellowships – including but not limited to the Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) program, Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF) – and some extramural fellowships may have employment restrictions. If an exception request is needed to work or to work at a certain percent-time, please contact the Grad SAO. DGE requires these types of requests to be submitted to them at least three weeks prior to the beginning of the requested quarter.
    • Please review either the call or award notice to check for any employment restrictions. If restrictions are not stated or not clear, please contact the Grad SAO, the appropriate DGE fellowship coordinator (for some extramural fellowships such as those offered through NSF), or the funding agency.

Maximum Limit of Merit-Based Support

Fellowships and ASE/GSR salary from July to the following June count towards the maximum limit. Funding that is entered specifically as a tuition award (including nonresident supplemental tuition) and fee remissions do not count. The posted limit is for a single student with no dependents (living off campus). Students with dependents have a slightly higher maximum.

Tax Return Preparation

General tax information may be viewed on the department’s website.
The Department does not prepare 1098-Ts, W-2s, nor can provide tax advice. The university is unable to provide specific tax advice to individuals. Please direct all tax-related questions to your tax preparer, VITA, or refer to the IRS site.

General Info

Career Development Resources

Weekly Announcements

Weekly Announcement newsletters will be sent by the Grad SAO every Monday during each academic quarter to help reduce the number of emails you receive. These emails will contain important notices, workshop announcements, courses of interest, funding and job opportunities, and an overview of events for the next two weeks. Make sure to keep a look out for these emails to stay updated.

If you would like to share an announcement, please send the information to the Grad SAO.

Email Address Updates and Ling Grad Student Profile

While students are able to change official contact information on MyUCLA, such changes are not communicated to the Department as there is no existing data link/sync to MyUCLA. If you change your email address or prefer to have communications sent to a different address, please inform the Grad SAO.

If you wish to update your Graduate Student profile, please contact the Grad SAO.

Meeting with the Graduate Student Affairs Officer

Meetings with the Grad SAO are held over Zoom and students are welcome to drop in any time between 8:30AM and 4:30PM, Monday through Friday. Zoom room info (link, phone number) is listed in the Grad SAO’s email signature.

Booking an appointment is recommended for inquiries that may take longer than 15 minutes to ensure that the Grad SAO has enough time. The booking link is listed in the Grad SAO’s email signature. If you are unable to locate it, please email the Grad SAO.

In person availability: The Grad SAO will be in the office in-person during the following weeks. Appointments booked during those weeks can be held in person.

  • September 2024: 23 to 27 (availability limited on September 25)
  • March 3 to 7, 2025 (availability limited on March 3 and 4)
  • June 9 to 13, 2025 (availability limited on June 12)

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