Funding Your Education
Appointment Templates and Forms
Minimum Stipends for TAs,
RAs, Administrative Assistants and Fellows
Tuition Remission for
Graduate Assistants
Travel Grants
Information for Postdoctoral
Fellows and Postdoctoral
Research Associates
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Graduate Assistants are, first and foremost, graduate students pursuing an education. The opportunity to work closely with faculty members and undergraduate students in teaching, research, or administrative environments is an integral part of that education.
Assistantships also provide graduate students with the financial resources necessary to pursue their degrees. This financial support—stipend, tuition remission, and benefits—is part of the University's commitment to the success of our graduate students.
The University is committed to ensuring that graduate assistant assignments are productive, enhance student qualifications, meet funding support and workload goals, and are consistent with the educational objectives of the student and his or her program.
A Graduate Assistant must be a registered graduate student in good standing enrolled in a degree program at the University of Maryland, College Park and must be making satisfactory progress toward the degree. Appointments are normally given to those students who have shown superior aptitude in their field of study and who appear likely to render a high quality of service to the university by their teaching or research activities or their administrative work in a unit. Advanced Special Students are not eligible to hold Graduate Assistantships.
The official title of Graduate Assistant (GA) is used in all university documents, but, in general practice, Graduate Assistants are referred to either as Graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs), Graduate Research Assistants (RAs), or Graduate Administrative Assistants (AAs). Additionally, a small number of Graduate Assistants serve as resident life counselors. Qualified graduate students often move between these kinds of appointments during their graduate education.
The Graduate School's policies relating to Graduate Assistantships, together with additional details on the types of Graduate Assistantships, are available in the Graduate Catalog.
Some tips for finding a Graduate Assistantship:
- Assistants are hired, paid, and supervised by the program or office that offers the appointment.
- Be proactive: whether the process is formal or informal, you must actively pursue an assistantship.
- Begin your search in your home department. Learn the criteria and application process in your department, and inform the appropriate person or persons that you are seeking an assistantship. Check with your departmental Graduate Director or Chair, your departmental support staff, your advisor or other professors who know you, and other graduate assistants.
- Extend your search. Centers, Institutes, other departments, offices in non-academic units, and individual professors with research grants all hire graduate assistants.
- Be prepared to seize an available opportunity. Have your resume and references ready.
Although there is no centralized posting of all available assistantships on campus, many are listed at the UM Human Resources Site . |
