Most graduate students secure some form of financial aid for at least part of their period of graduate study. Some forms of financial aid are awarded by the department, while others are provided by outside organizations. Applicants are encouraged to seek support from more than one source. Teaching Assistantships The Department of Sociology typically awards between thirty and forty teaching assistantships per year. Teaching assistants aid faculty in teaching one or more courses.
Duties vary somewhat, but frequently entail leading discussion sections in undergraduate courses.
About twenty hours of service per week are expected. Research Assistantships Faculty research projects supported by external funding sometimes employ graduate student assistants to perform essential research functions. The number of these awards varies greatly from one year to the next. Since faculty typically prefer to work with students whose skills are familiar to them, research assistantships are not ordinarily awarded to first year students. Readerships and other hourly employment Funds for hourly reader assistance are allocated to selected undergraduate sociology courses, and funded research projects may provide employment opportunities for qualified candidates.