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Graduate School
Graduate assistent student working on a server room.

Graduate Assistantships

Graduate assistantships are a popular way in which the University financially supports graduate students while providing important professional development. A graduate assistant is a student and an employee of the university who is eligible to work at Illinois State for the number of hours required of the position.

When hiring graduate assistants, the University's goal is always to hire the most qualified student for the position. Satisfactory academic progress and time-to-degree play important roles when determining the qualification of a student for an assistantship.

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Graduate Assistantship Online Postings

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Benefits

Graduate assistantships provide:

  • monthly wages paid in the form of either a stipend or an hourly wage
  • a waiver for 100% of tuition during a semester of appointment
  • a waiver for up to 12 credit hours of tuition for the summer term immediately following a fall or spring appointment

Eligibility

To be eligible for an assistantship a student must, generally,

  • be admitted unconditionally as a degree-seeking student into a graduate academic program, or have a minimum of 120 undergraduate hours if in an integrated degree program
  • be in good academic standing
  • be enrolled full-time (typically at least 9 credit hours during the fall or spring semesters, or at least 6 hours during the summer session).

For more information on becoming a graduate assistant, please check out the Graduate Assistant Handbook and visit with your department/school's graduate coordinator.

Types of Assistantships

Graduate teaching assistanships support instruction in a classroom or laboratory, including but not limited to responsibilities such as serving as a primary or secondary teaching instructor in a class or laboratory, assisting a faculty member with teaching related tasks, grading student assignments which require knowledge of subjects taught in a class or laboratory, meeting with and/or tutoring students, holding office hours, preparing instructional materials, and assisting during class and/or lab, etc.

Graduate Research Assistantships assist faculty members with their research. The nature of the assistance varies by discipline and can involve a variety of activities such as library work, proposal writing and publications, data gathering, data analysis, field work and/or studio work, etc.

Pre-Professional Assistantships provide valuable on-campus professional development for students working outside of the classroom or research areas. Graduate assistantships whose job assignments are closely aligned with their programs of study may be classified as pre-professional assistants.

Apply to be a Graduate Assistant

All available graduate assistantships are posted on the Human Resources website. Any graduate student can apply for the various assistantships available. However, some departments/schools will only offer assistantships to students in their programs. You must be legally eligible to work in Illinois for the number of hours required of the position.

Learn more and apply for a Graduate Assistantship

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