Graduate Assistantships Graduate assistants are employed to assist faculty and staff members in duties related to their teaching responsibilities. Teaching assistants ordinarily assist in examination preparation, grading, preparation of materials, and other related responsibilities. Some graduate assistants are also given opportunities to lecture as a way to develop teaching skills. These duties usually involve 20 hours of work per week and assistants are accordingly limited to a maximum of nine credit hours of their own coursework per semester. A few research assistantships are available from faculty holding research grants.
Research assistants render assistance to staff and faculty members engaged in research projects.
Special skills such as knowledge of a specific area of research, computer programming, data analysis, or knowledge of a foreign language are often required. Research assistants normally devote 20 hours per week to the research project and their course loads are limited to nine credit hours per semester. There are no applications for tuition waivers. All students accepted as regular graduate students are automatically considered for tuition waivers. The scholarship carries a stipend equivalent to a tuition waiver.