Graduate assistantship refers to a salary employment opportunity available for graduate students. Graduate assistants are required to work for a stipulated number of hours weekly and in return, they get to receive a tuition waiver, and sometimes a monthly living stipend.
Assistantships can be viewed as a type of grant but it can be quite demanding as it requires your time and physical work and energy, while you also concentrate on your studies. However, one of the benefits of assistantships is that they provide you with the necessary experience which can aid your studies and employability in the future.
Many benefits come with studying in the United States. Although it houses some of the best universities in the world according to the QS world ranking, it also offers quality education. This is one of the reasons international students pick the US as part of the options they consider when they want to study abroad. Consequently, education is expensive, hence the reason why international students look for ways to sponsor their education. Grants, student loans, scholarships and assistantships are some of the options available for students to sponsor their education.
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To reduce the cost of education and allow students the opportunity to fulfil their dreams, schools in the U.S. offer graduate assistantship programs. Also, there are other aid opportunities available to help international students, but they are quite limited and not open to everyone. Some of the benefits of the graduate assistantship programmes include:
Like it was defined earlier, graduate assistantships are employment opportunities offered to students on campus and in return, they get rewarded with monthly stipends, tuition waivers, health insurance and other benefits as provided by the school.
On the other hand, scholarships are free fee waivers that are offered without any form of service from the students. They can be offered by the university or individuals or organizations. Moreover, in the U.S. assistantship opportunities are more available and accessible than scholarship opportunities.
There are different types of graduate assistantships available in universities in the United States. Some of them include:
Each of the types are discussed below:
Graduate assistantship opportunities provide a way for international students to fund their education. A graduate assistant is responsible for helping a professor or a faculty member in different areas including teaching, class preparation, research and other aspects. Graduate assistantships require 15-20 hours a week and the student is paid by the university for the job.
The job description of a graduate assistant depends on the responsibility given by the supervisor and the department. However, generally, a graduate assistant is expected to:
The basic requirement for the graduate assistantship opportunity in most universities is:
Teaching assistantship in the U.S. entails being an assistant to a professor. Professors usually have other engagements asides from lecturing in classes. Sometimes, the assistant also gets to teach when the professors are unavailable.
The responsibilities of a teaching assistant include:
Professors often select dedicated and eager students who are wishing to learn and will be effective in driving the right results for the professor.
Getting a teaching assistantship is not such a rigorous process. You can apply for a teaching assistantship when you apply for admission but you will only be eligible after you have completed your first semester. The basic eligibility requirements include:
Once you have met the requirements, you need to go through each of the professor’s profiles and pick the one that will be best for you. It is advisable to choose wisely.
Research assistantship requires that students should help the professors they are assigned to with research work. The students get to have a firsthand experience in research and in return, professors get their workload reduced.
The major difference between the teaching assistantship and the research assistantship is that while the teaching assistantship is majorly concerned with assisting professors with teaching duties, the research assistantship has to do with research projects.
The research assistantship responsibilities include:
The basic requirement for the graduate assistantship opportunity in most universities is:
Generally, there isn’t so much difference between the three types of assistantship opportunities. The major difference is that graduate assistantships are often more profitable as they have higher pay than research assistantships and teaching assistantships because it requires that the students are more knowledgeable in the field.
The process of getting any form of assistantship differs according to individual university requirements. The process may sometimes include submitting an application form, a physical interview and an essay submission. The guidelines include:
Your cover letter should contain relevant information about your experience, skills and what you are willing to offer as this will help in convincing your employer. Some of the elements of an assistantship cover letter include:
Some of the graduate assistantship opportunities available in the U.S include:
In conclusion, graduate assistantships also require effort to get and intentionality to maintain. However, it is also equally beneficial to many students who can handle them.
Seeking to start a career in business analytics or any course in the STEM field? Enrolling in the top universities in the world can increase your chances with employers. Unfortunately, it can be quite expensive to study abroad due to the current economic crisis. But this shouldn’t limit you as there are other options you can explore to enhance your career.
MPower Finance and Prodigy Finance are some of the best student loan providers for international students. They also do not require any cosigner or collateral before application. At EdXtra Associates, we can help you with your loan application process. We also provide educational consultancy services for international students to help make your journey easier and faster. You can reach out to us, as we’ll love to guide you through this journey.
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This post was last modified on February 14, 2024 1:52 pm