If you are a current graduate student or are a prospective graduate student applying to programs, you have probably heard of a graduate assistantship position.
But what are they, and what’s the point of them?
Graduate assistantships can be the cornerstone of your experience as a graduate student. Not only can they help you financially but they can also provide you with connections within your department, quality work experience, insight into what it takes to become an educator or professional, and the opportunity to learn from and work with other students and professionals in your field.
Graduate assistantships can help to deepen your educational experience.
Graduate assistantships can help to further your education by providing you with connections within your department and your field as a whole. You can focus on a particular area of study, gain a deeper insight into the field by working with both professionals and other students, and see your area of study from a range of new perspectives.
Teaching and research assistantships provide students with the opportunity to augment their educations. These roles encourage a deeper level of comprehension so that students can apply their studies in research or in the classroom.
Graduate assistantships can help you understand what it takes to be an educator or professional.
Working as a graduate assistant also gives you an insight into the life of an educator or professional working in your field. Gaining teaching, research, office, or residence hall experience can help give you a taste of what it might be like should you decide to stay in academia after your graduate program.
Choosing your professional direction can be difficult at times, but having practical work experience from your GA will make it easier to decide which path is right for you.
Graduate assistantships provide students with important work experience.
As a graduate assistant, you will gain quality work experience. While on the job, you are given the opportunity to learn and work with professors and professionals. From an educational standpoint, the benefits are clear – but graduate assistantships also provide you with a valuable network of contacts to look to for references and advice post-graduation.
Also, we all know that financing graduate school can be a struggle, and graduate assistantships, in addition to offering worthwhile work experience, will help you to fund your graduate education.
So, what are my options as a graduate assistant?
Universities award many graduate assistantships annually to incoming and continuing graduate students in the form of both regular and part-time assistantships. Regular graduate assistants work an average of 20 hours per week, and part-time assistants average 10 hours of work per week. Graduate assistants receive both a stipend for their work and a tuition waiver from the university.
There are three different types of graduate assistants:
- Graduate teaching assistants teach courses, laboratory sections, and recitation sections, or provide other forms of instructional assistance.
- Graduate research assistants help faculty members with their research activities.
- Graduate service assistants typically work in one of the administrative or service offices in positions related to their program of study and that contribute to their educational experience.
The range of graduate assistantships available to students means that you can tailor your experience to match your interests and needs and ultimately choose a path that benefits you.
Source: https://blog.graduateadmissions.wvu.edu/the-summit-ahead/understanding-the-value-of-graduate-assistantships