Graduate Student Information

CAS Graduate Student Support

The Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, Dr. Maureen A. Donnelly, is responsible for the graduate assistantship budget and the allocations of assistantships to graduate programs.

There are three types of assistantships administered by our office:

TA (Teaching Assistantship)
GA (Graduate Assistantship)
RA (Research Assistantship)

Individual departments make decisions about admission of students and allocation of support to their students. Teaching Assistants are directly involved with undergraduate teaching. Graduate Assistantships are often assigned to individual faculty and are assigned by the department. Research Assistants are hired directly by faculty from research grants.

Links

Graduate Support

Travel Support for Graduate Students

Deadlines for Filings

Graduate Application Form

University Graduate School

CAS Graduate Faculty

Contract Period. All doctoral programs that offer support to graduate assistants offer three terms of support (stipend and matriculation waiver): fall, spring, and summer. The term of contract for Master’s students varies by department with some being supported only Fall and Spring with others being support for three terms. While students are supported as GAs, TAs, or RAs, they must be enrolled as full-time students (9 credits in fall and spring and 6 credits in the summer).

Support. Graduate students supported by any assistantship receive a stipend that is paid from August to August on a biweekly basis. Doctoral stipends vary by discipline ($18,000 to $22,000). In addition to the stipend, students with assistantships receive a matriculation waiver for 24 credits/year. Students are responsible for payment of per-credit-hour fees and semester fees (~575/semester in 08-09 academic year).

Eligibility. Students supported by any assistantship must be full-time students. Students must also maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better to be eligible for college support.

Functions and obligations. Graduate assistantships are considered to be half-time appointments (20 hours/week). Assignments are handled by the department that hires the graduate assistant. Teaching assistants can only be instructors of record after they complete 18 graduate credit hours.