You are admitted to a graduate program, and show up at the University to find a complex, well-oiled and highly efficient payroll administration that has automatically ensured that your pay is delivered to the right place at the right time, in the right amount, right?

Well....the truth is that things sometimes do go wrong, but getting paid properly isn't an issue of money, it's an issue of communication. If everything goes right, nobody needs to communicate about payroll. But when things go awry, ahhhh.... what do you do then? How do you even know if things are going wrong?

Tips to ensure you're paid properly:

1. After you're accepted into a graduate program at the University, and certainly no later than the first week after you arrive in Charlottesville, introduce yourself to the program administrator. Give them the following information:
   • Full Name
   • Social Security Number
   • Local Address
   • Local Phone Number
   • Contact Phone Number (someplace other than home, if you have one, like a lab phone)
   • Your Email Address
2. Ask the program administrator to answer the following questions:
   • When do I get paid?
   • How much do I get paid?
   • How do I get paid?
3. Ask if there are forms you need to complete (W-4, VA-4, I-9, etc.).  PLEASE NOTE, you'll need direct deposit, so set up a local account, and aprovide a blank check to your BIMS administrator - you'll need to sign the direct deposit authorization.

Graduate students in general are paid either a stipend or wages. Your program administrator can explain which you receive and the pay schedule and amounts. You should acquire this knowledge for your own protection; if something goes wrong with your pay, you may be the first to notice. You might not notice immediately either, but all students receive some sort of notification of their pay, even if it's nothing more than a bank statement. Make sure that what you are actually receiving matches what your were told by your program administrator.

If something doesn't seem right...

1. Go see your program administrator right away and take along whatever documentation caused you concern. If you have supporting documentation, take that too. Payroll is about communicating information, remember?
2. Most problems can be ironed out relatively quickly, but there may be a few that take longer. Be patient, and if the problem is going to cause you financial difficulty, make that known to your program administrator. There are sources of emergency support to keep you going until the problem is resolved.
3. If you and your program administrator can't solve the problem, bring it to the Graduate Programs Office in Jordan Hall. One of the responsibilities of the GPO is to oversee and troubleshoot the payroll process for all students in the School of Medicine graduate programs.