Graduate Assistantships

There are three types of assistantship positions on campus: Teaching Assistantships (TAs), Research Assistantships (RAs), and Adminstrative Assistants (AAs). To be employed as a UM Graduate Assistant, one must be a registered graduate student enrolled in a degree program at the University of Maryland, College Park.   The Graduate School's policies and procedures relating to Graduate Assistantships are available in the Assistantships chapter of the Graduate Catalog.

Teaching Assistants usually assist professors and other experienced instructors in a classroom setting by preparing or conducting lectures and discussion sections, assisting students, or grading exams, lab reports, papers, or other assignments. These assistants are hired by the academic unit or program, and are usually assigned a faculty mentor. In some cases, the Teaching Assistant will assume responsiblity, under faculty supervision, for teaching a course on his or her own.

Research Assistants work primarily with faculty or other investigators on some facet of a research project. These assistants are selected by the faculty with whom they will be working. At times, RAs are paid from grant funds that a principal investigator (PI) has secured.

Administrative Assistants are employed by numerous on-campus offices. AAs provide a wide variety of services to their academic units, ranging from clerical support to web design and program management. Each campus unit is responsible for the selection of its own graduate Adminstrative Assistants.

There are also a small number of positions available on campus as Resident Life Counselors.  

• Finding an assistantship is, in many ways, equivalent to finding a job . Assistants are hired, paid, and supervised by the program or office that offers the appointment.
• Start looking for your assistantship in the most familiar places . Most departments hire their own students as TAs, RAs, and AAs. Find out the criteria and application process in your department, and let them know that you want an assistantship. Ask your home department (chair or graduate director), your advisor, or other professors who know you, and the support staff (including other graduate assistants) in your department. Many assistantships are never publicized and are filled only through word-of-mouth.
• Nobody will hire you unless you ask . Whether the process is formal application or informal, you must actively pursue your assistantship.
• Look for assistantships everywhere . Centers, Institutes, individual professors with research grant money, other departments, and non-academic offices all hire graduate assistants.
• Be prepared to seize an opportunity when it becomes available. Have your resume and references ready.

The followhing resources post announcements of available assistantships:

University Human Resources

This is the website for the Personnel Department of the University of Maryland. Here they post all listed assistantships. *