In the Rutgers system, graduate students registering for a term need to register for courses and / or research, and also for their appointments, if any. Many graduate students have appointments that include tuition remission, so they generally register 1 - 2 weeks before the start of the term, so that their term bill comes due after their first paycheck -- see below.
Active graduate students must register for at least 1 course or research credit each term - you are supposed to be continuously registered until you receive your degree.
You need to register for at least 9 (7) credits to be full (half) time. Most international students generally need to be full time due to their visa requirements -- but see below concerning reduced credits. Most domestic students with undergraduate loans are able defer repaying their loans if they are at least half time. (Please check the terms of your loan.)
For a Ph.D. (M.S.), 72 (30) credits of courses and/or research are required. There is no reward for getting more credits. SAS is limiting tuition support for Ph.D. students to 75 credits maximum, so senior Ph.D. students should be careful to limit the number of credits they register for. Ph.D. students generally graduate after about 6 years, so typically need about 6 credits of courses + research per term on average (5 after their first year).
International Ph.D. students approaching 72 credits who have completed all coursework can maintain full time status despite fewer credits by applying for reduced credits with Global Services. More detailed information and a link to the online application are available here. The application is automatically sent to the GPD for review and approval.
Domestic students with loans but too few credits should submit paperwork so that they do not have to repay the loans. We have been told that Ph.D. students who have completed their coursework only need to submit the ``Enrollment Certification of Doctoral Students'' form available at the SGS form web site, as long as they are registered for at least 1 credit (not including their appointment). It appears that M.S. students should submit the full time status request form: https://grad.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/2021-01/request_for_full_time_status.pdf.
A Ph.D. degree is a research degree, and requires a minimum of 24 credits of research courses 701 (in the fall) and / or 702 (in the spring), which are graded on a satisfactory / unsatisfactory basis. M.S. students working towards an M.S. with thesis will also sign up for 6 credits of research. You need to choose an appropriate number of credits of 701 / 702 to sign up for, normally from 1 - 9. To sign up for 701 or 702, look up the index number for your adviser in the schedule of classes for the upcoming term. Start from https://sis.rutgers.edu/soc/#home. Faculty are roughly but not entirely in alphabetical order. It seems that each term a couple faculty disappear from the list for reasons we do not understand. If you cannot find your adviser, contact the GPDAA, Shirley Hinds. Ph.D. students signing up for research should sign up for 701 / 702 after they are advanced to candidacy. Before being advanced, register for 623 and / or 624 if you are going to do non-classroom work with your adviser - these courses are given letter grades.
If you have an appointment and it is...
- a Fellow, register for course 811, 0 credits.
- a GA, register for course 866, 6 GA credits.
- a TA, register for course 877, 6 TA credits.
Course and research credits count both towards your degree and your full- or half-time status. TA/GA/Fellow appointment credits count towards your full- or half-time status, but DO NOT count towards your degree - as a result, no tuition is charged for registering appointments. Registering as a full time TA or GA leads to an email to you concerning registering for medical insurance. Please follow the instructions in that email.
Ph.D. students generally need permission to register for more than 16 credits (6 credit appointment + 10 credits courses and/or research). If you need to exceed this limit, contact the GPD concerning special permission.
If you are unable to register for a course because you are missing a prerequisite -- This mostly happens to those who pass challenge exams. -- please ask the GPD and GPDAA for a special permission number.
If you have tuition remission, your tuition (and fees) will not be paid until after you receive your first paycheck. Student accounting only pays tuition 3 times within a semester, so you will need to be patient even after you are on payroll. If you have tuition remission, even if you receive messages about paying your tuition, please continue to be patient, do NOT pay the tuition. If a late fee appears on your term bill, reach out to Shirley Hinds.
For incoming students, your social security number also needs to be on file. You need to upload your Social Security Card to OneSource and also to Student Accounting.
Please contact Shirley if there are any questions on tuition remission.
Health Insurance:
Students are required to have insurance, but those with outside coverage can fill out paperwork to waive the university options.
Students with no other coverage should expect to be enrolled in the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP). They are responsible for paying the SHIP premium charge that appears on their term bill.
Full-year TA, GA, or TA/GA split appointments are eligible for the employee SHBP medical insurance. The SHBP insurance typically involves a payroll deduction from your paycheck.
Single-term TAs and GAs are eligible for the PTGI health insurance which is the same as SHIP. This health insurance is funded by the university. These students should not see a charge on the term bill.
SGS provides health insurance for Fellows ( Graduate Fellows Health Insurance or GFHI). The students should not see a charge on the term bill.
Students coming off of Fellowship to TA/GA -- e.g., Fellow one year, TA and/or GA the next -- that do not enroll in SHBP on time will be automatically enrolled in SHIP. Once the enrollment period ends, no further action can be done, and students will be responsible for paying the SHIP premium appearing on their term bills.
For questions regarding health benefits and enrollment, please contact UHR at (732) 745-7378 or online at https://uhr.rutgers.edu/teaching-assistants-graduate-assistants.
In recent years we have had several cases of students with multiple health insurance plans or with none! Our experience is that you should be covered by only one health insurance plan. Students covered by multiple plans have had issues with coordination of benefits in the past. Your situation might be different. If you have no insurance plan through the university because you missed signing up, you will need to get coverage from outside, perhaps healthcare.gov.
Additional Information and Links:
The course schedules can be reached from https://classes.rutgers.edu//soc/#home. Choose the correct term, New Brunswick, graduate, click "Continue", type in Physics and select "Physics 750". For Fall 2025, this takes you to https://classes.rutgers.edu//soc/#courses?subject=750&semester=92025&campus=NB&level=G, where you can see the classes offered, including schedules, rooms, and instructors.
Registration is done online through webreg. See https://nbregistrar.rutgers.edu/undergrad/reginfo.htm, which links to information and the webreg login page https://sims.rutgers.edu/webreg/.
For those who do not have appointments with tuition remission, please see https://finance.rutgers.edu/student-abc/payments for information about how to pay your term bill. Registering should lead to an email with payment instructions.
TA/GA Employee Health Benefits: For questions regarding health benefits and enrollment, please contact Rutgers University Human Resources at 732-745-7378 or via the UHR website, https://uhr.rutgers.edu/benefits/home.