Frequently Asked Questions

The Summer II session has transitioned nearly all face-to-face classes to online delivery. The only courses that will remain face-to-face are those that require a face-to-face component for licensure or degree requirements.

Faculty, in consultation with their chair/director, will be making decisions regarding a change from face-to-face to remote/hybrid course design by July 15 for the Fall semester, based on the needs and academic requirements of their students. Please note that face-to-face classes will be taught in a modified format to allow for social distancing in the classroom. In addition, measures have been implemented to safeguard our community beginning in Summer II. They include but are not limited to:

• requiring protective face coverings
• decreasing the density of classrooms, shared offices, and co-curricular events
• enhanced cleaning and disinfecting protocols
• communicating the university’s expectations for personal and public health measures

Request Process for Student Academic Modifications

Students with underlying health conditions that put them at greater risk for COVID-19 as identified by the CDC can request modifications by submitting the Student Academic Modifications Request Form. Individuals who are 65 years of age or older do not have to provide any additional information. Individuals who have an ongoing underlying medical condition will need to provide evidence of their condition. This documentation can be a letter from the health care provider, or the health care provider can complete and submit the COVID-19 Health Care Verification Form.

View the University Registrar's academic calendars for Summer 2020 and Fall 2020 for a complete list of registration, add/drop, withdrawal, and additional important dates.

The Graduate College provides some resources for making the switch from face-to-face to remote. Please visit The Graduate College’s strategies for remote learning page.

All of the Shop Talks during the Summer and Fall semesters will be conducted as webinars. Please visit the Shop Talks page for a full schedule.

Deadline extensions for master’s and doctoral students can be viewed on The Graduate College’s deadlines page.

Forms may be filled out and signed electronically and sent via email to The Graduate College at gcdegspcl@txstate.edu. Please contact our Degree Audit Specialists at gcdegspcl@txstate.edu if you have any questions.

Until further notice, thesis and dissertation defenses and oral comprehensive exams are not to take place in person. Instead, they will be held remotely via Zoom or Teams. This decision was made to help protect the health and well-being of the entire campus community.

If Summer 2020 graduation candidates are eligible to graduate at the end of the summer semester, they will receive their degree and a diploma via regular mail.

It is important that candidates and families understand the difference between "participating in commencement [walking across the stage]" and "graduating [receiving a diploma]".

The university will hold a virtual commencement on Saturday, August 8, 2020. It will honor those students who graduated in Spring and those who will graduate in Summer. More information can be viewed on the university’s commencement page.

It is important to continue to meet with your advisor and/or mentor remotely via Zoom or Teams if social distancing cannot be arranged for in-person office hours.

In some disciplines, COVID-19 has a greater impact on research activities than others. All graduate students, though especially those whose research and/or progress towards their degree is negatively impacted by COVID-19, are encouraged to reach out to their research advisor, graduate advisor, and to The Graduate College to discuss potential changes to research timelines, the scope of the work, research methodology, course sequences, etc.

Research in laboratories is allowed to resume at 25% capacity provided that the faculty member in charge has an approved SOP (standard operating procedure) document on file with the university. Check with your research advisor and/or graduate advisor. On-site graduate student work in a laboratory or a field work setting is strictly on a voluntary basis.

The IRB office has been reaching out to researchers (PIs) with active human subject research protocols to address this topic. Please visit the university's IRB website for more information.

The university’s COVID-19 page provides detailed information on the travel restrictions currently in place at Texas State University. Certain fieldwork might be permitted provided that the faculty member in charge of the research has an approved SOP (standard operating procedure) document on file with the university. Check with your research advisor and/or graduate advisor. On-site graduate student work in a laboratory or a fieldwork setting is strictly on a voluntary basis.

The deadline to apply for the Fall 2020 round of the Thesis and Doctoral Research Support Fellowships has been extended from June 30 to July 15 this year in order to accommodate students who need additional time on their proposals due to barriers caused by COVID-19. The schedule for disbursements for this funding round has not changed and will be soon after the beginning of the Fall semester as in previous years. (The next round of Research Support Fellowships opens September 15 - November 15.)

Summer Session I: since all instruction has moved online, it is the expectation of the university that meetings of an instructor with teaching assistants are held online as well.

Summer Session II: Meetings can take place in person provided that the general health guidelines of the university are adhered to, masks are worn, and social distancing is maintained. However, The Graduate College strongly encourages to hold meetings online when possible.

Teaching and instructional assistants can participate in training sessions. Please visit the faculty training opportunities page for more information.

Many graduate student employees may have invisible underlying health conditions, which puts them at a much higher risk of becoming infected. The academic and workplace modifications implemented for Summer II 2020 and Fall 2020 are based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) list of medical conditions that may place individuals at a higher risk for serious illness and/or complications from COVID-19 which are:

1. people 65 years and older
2. people of all ages with ongoing underlying medical conditions, particularly if not well controlled:

• chronic lung diseases such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• moderate to severe asthma
• serious heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, or congenital heart disease
• immunocompromised conditions such as cancer treatment, bone marrow or organ transplantation, immune deficiencies, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, and prolonged use of corticosteroids and immune weakening medications
• severe obesity (Body mass index of 40 kg/m2 or higher)
• diabetes, type 1 or 2 or gestational
• chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis
• liver diseases such as cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis
• hemoglobin disorders such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia

In accordance with CDC guidelines, additional modifications to help safeguard the health and safety of students and employees in these higher-risk groups may be provided on a case-by-case basis if they do not pose significant difficulty or expense, do not alter the academic expectations of a course or program, and allow employees to still accomplish the necessary functions of their position.

Request Process for Employee Workplace Modifications

If you are in a higher risk group and want to request a modification related to COVID-19, please complete the Employee Workplace Request Form. Individuals who are 65 years of age or older do not have to provide additional medical documentation. Individuals who have an ongoing underlying medical condition will need to provide evidence of their condition by filling out the COVID-19 Health Care Verification Form. Please note student employees should submit the employee workplace request for all employment-related modifications.

To ensure a timely review of all requests, please submit the Employee Workplace Request Form by June 29, 2020, for modifications for the remainder of the Summer semester and by August 1, 2020, for the Fall 2020 semester.

Please do not come to work, and instead get the medical help that you need. Please notify your supervisor as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made (e.g., a substitute can be found, arrangements for making up hours can potentially be made or for you to be able to apply for emergency aid sick leave, etc.). If your illness affects class participation, consider contacting the Dean of Students Office at dos@txstate.edu so they can notify your instructors.

Yes, it does apply to graduate student employees. Signed into law on March 18, 2020, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) provides two new distinct leave categories that Texas State University is making available to all students, staff, and faculty to alleviate some of the work, health, family, and leave challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The FFCRA is effective April 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. Since this is a new emergency measure being implemented in a very short time frame, we are asking supervisors to work closely with employees to make sure they are aware of their options and can make the best decision for themselves and their families. For more information, view the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) for Texas State Employees.

• The emergency funding assistance available from the Dean of Students Office is also available for graduate students. Students can apply for the funds via the Emergency funding assistance form.
• Graduate students who face financial hardship can also participate in free professional financial coaching. The university has partnered with a program from the US Department of Education, which offers free financial coaching to students (both undergraduate and graduate). This coaching is done by professional financial advisors/counselors. It is entirely confidential; no information is provided back to the university. The link to the program is on the Bobcat Gold page under “financial coaches”. It might be useful to talk to them about potentially consolidating credit card debt, etc.
• In addition, Bobcat Bounty provides food assistance and links to other resources.

• All international travel is canceled until further notice.
• All domestic travel is canceled until further notice.
• Travel between the San Marcos and Round Rock campuses or the TSUS Office in Austin is still permitted and does not require pre-approval.

For these reasons, The Graduate College is currently not processing funding requests for graduate student conference travel.

Until further notice, travelers should only schedule 100% refundable future travel purchases. If you make travel purchases and do not have an approved Travel Request, the purchase will have to be paid personally. If the travel is not a fully refundable purchase and it is later not approved, the purchase would not be reimbursable. Visit the university's FAQs page for more information on travel.

If it is a trip that already occurred, that reimbursement will be processed as usual. If a conference was canceled and there were no refunds given, The Graduate College will provide funds according to its usual amounts and process. If a conference is postponed to a date prior to August 31, 2020, and university travel restrictions will be lifted, previously awarded funds will be available to the student, provided they have not graduated by the conference date. If the conference is postponed until after August 31, 2020, and provided that university travel restrictions have been lifted, the student will have to submit a new travel request.

In addition to information provided by the Counseling Center, The Graduate College has compiled some mental wellness-related resources on our strategies for remote learning page.

Please visit the International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) website for updates and contact information.

Please review the International Student and Scholar Services' (ISSS) operations in response to COVID-19 for information related to SEVIS, international travel, personal well-being, OPT/STEM OPT, USCIS, and more.

Yes, registration for new students is open, and students are encouraged to register.

View the University Registrar's academic calendars for Summer 2020 and Fall 2020 for a complete list of registration, add/drop, withdrawal, and additional important dates.

Yes, The Graduate College will be holding an online New Graduate Student Orientation on Wednesday, August 12, 2020. More information will be communicated to admitted students via email in the coming weeks. Graduate programs might be holding separate orientation events. Check with the graduate advisor of your program.

The Graduate College is holding all its information sessions as webinars. The schedule is available on our Graduate Information Events page.

Undergraduate Admissions is offering an online campus tour and anticipates resuming on-campus tours in July. The Graduate College, however, will not be offering campus tours until further notice.

Some of the graduate programs have extended their application deadlines and/or are offering rolling admission. Please visit the individual program pages for more information.

Not all of our programs require the GRE/GMAT, and several programs have waived the requirement for summer and Fall 2020 admission. Please note that for future semesters, ETS is offering a GRE at-home test for students in the U.S. and Canada and in several countries abroad. For a complete list, please check the GRE website. We are monitoring the situation to make possible adjustments to admissions requirements for future semesters.

ETS has launched a TOEFL iBT® Special Home test to help test takers in some countries. In other countries, testing centers for the TOEFL and IELTS test have been closed. Please check the TOEFL and IELTS websites for the most up-to-date information. If an applicant is unable to take the TOEFL/IELTS test due to test centers in their areas being closed, contact The Graduate College at gradcollege@txstate.edu to inquire about deferring your application to a future semester.

Many of the graduate programs allow an applicant to defer admission to a future semester. Please contact The Graduate College at gradcollege@txstate.edu to inquire whether this is an option in your program.

Please contact The Graduate College at gradcollege@txstate.edu to inquire whether you can start the program while in your home country, and/or to inquire if you can defer admission to a future semester.

Yes, and for some documents, such as transcripts, mail may be necessary. However, The Graduate College encourages using email when possible. If you have questions about what can be sent via email, please email us at gradcollege@txstate.edu.

If you have additional questions, contact us at gradcollege@txstate.edu.