Graduate Assistantships

Types of Assistantships

There are three types of graduate assistantships: general Graduate Assistantships, Graduate Teaching Assistantships, and Graduate Research Assistantships.

Graduate Assistant (GA)
Graduate assistants are graduate students who provide academic and program support. GA responsibilities may be administrative in nature and consist of duties unrelated directly to teaching or research (such as academic advising, program planning, advising student groups, and assisting with the administration of student services offices). GA responsibilities may also be academic in nature and include grading examinations, problem sets, and/or lab assignments, setting up displays for lectures or laboratory sections, and preparing or maintaining equipment used in laboratory sections.

Graduate Research Assistant (GRA)
Graduate research assistants are graduate students conducting academically significant research under the direction of a faculty member, who is generally a principal investigator on an external grant or contract.

Graduate Research Assistantships are awarded by departments and professors who are engaged in research projects. Research assistantships offer exciting opportunities to participate in ongoing research developments at Virginia Tech. Since GRAs are often funded by sponsored research grants, they may be paid at a higher stipend level than GAs or GTAs.

Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA)
Graduate teaching assistants provide academic program support under the supervision of a faculty member. GTAs may assist faculty in the department in teaching undergraduate courses, including laboratory teaching assignments, or in providing other appropriate professional assistance, including grading examinations, problem sets, and/or lab assignments, setting up displays for lectures and laboratory sections, and preparing or maintaining equipment used in laboratory sections. GTAs must have 18 hours of graduate-level course work completed in their teaching disciplines to be assigned full responsibility for teaching an undergraduate course. GTAs lacking this training will be assigned to work under the supervision of a faculty member who will be the instructor of record for the course.

The GTA workshop is held during the week before the start of Fall classes. Although this workshop is primarily for new GTAs, continuing graduate students who have not previously attended may also enroll. Participants will enroll in GRAD 5004 (1 credit) upon the recommendation of their departments.

GTAs are given special parking passes each semester that allow them to park in restricted lots on days that they teach classes. GTAs should apply for these passes by completing the request form and submitting it to Parking Services. A regular student parking pass is also required.

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Assistantship Eligibility Requirements

• Must be enrolled in 12-18 credit hours
• Maintain a 3.0 GPA to hold assistantships; departmental requirements may be higher.
• Make satisfactory progress toward degree as defined by academic departments and the Graduate School
• Meet requirements to be eligible for employment in the U.S.

A full assistantship requires a student to work for 20 hours per week on average. Departments may also offer partial assistantships.

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Assistantship Availability

In addition to assistantships awarded by departments, there are other university administrative units that employ graduate assistants. When a position becomes available, a notice is posted on the Graduate School webpage under Featured Information/Funding Opportunities.

Compensation for Graduate Students

Graduate students who work as graduate assistants while pursuing their master's or doctoral degrees provide a valuable service to the university. Many teach undergraduate classes. Others support faculty in scholarly and sponsored research activities. To be competitive in the recruitment and retention of high quality graduate students, it is important for the University to provide compensation packages that are comparable with those offered by our peer institutions. The key components of the compensation packages are competitive stipends, tuition assistance, and health insurance.

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Graduate Stipends

The stipend scale has been simplified and expanded to provide additional flexibility to departments in managing their existing graduate assistant resources. Departments have a wide range of stipend options with which to match competitive offers to promising graduate program applicants. The scale also reflects the minimum stipend levels authorized by the National Science Foundation.

2006-07 Full-Time Graduate Stipend Table — effective August 10, 2006 [ 38k]
2007-08 Full-Time Graduate Stipend Table — effective August 10, 2007 [ 9k]

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In-State Tuition Scholarship

During the academic year (Fall/Spring) students who are paid at Step 20 or below receive a tuition scholarship for the in-state tuition, academic fee, and engineering fee, if applicable, for the semester of their assistantship. The tuition, academic fee, and engineering fee are proportionate to the assistantship appointment. Students who are paid at Step 21 or above may need to pay their tuition, academic fee, and engineering fee from their assistantship stipends.

Out-of-State Tuition Waiver

Graduate students who earn more than $4000 in an academic year on assistantship appointment(s) are eligible for a waiver of the out-of-state fee portion of tuition for the year, even if their assistantship was for only one semester. Students must be enrolled full-time to qualify for the out-of-state tuition waiver. Summer earnings on assistantship or wage employment do not count towards meeting the $4000 minimum earnings requirement. Tuition bills from the Bursar's Office will show the out-of-state tuition charge and a credit to reflect the out-of-state tuition waiver.

The out-of-state fee waiver is automatically applied to students' accounts when the following three criteria are met: the student's appointment is entered in Banner by the department, the student meets the earnings criteria described above, and the student has registered for the semester. (This does not apply to level 46 bachelor's/master's student: out-of-state fees cannot be waived for these students).

Undergraduate students who attended Virginia Tech from other states and who go on to Graduate School are not automatically considered in-state residents. For questions about residency, please contact the Graduate School at 540/231-8316.

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Health Insurance Benefits

Graduate assistants who maintain at least a 50% assistantship (10 hours per week), may be eligible for health insurance benefits. Visit the Graduate School's insurance benefits webpage for additional information.

Assistantship Agreement Contract

Students offered an assistantship must sign the Graduate Assistantship Agreement form, which is a contract between the student and department. The agreement should stipulate the beginning and ending dates of the contract, the type of appointment, the amount of the monthly stipend, whether the student is expected to work during school breaks, and any other special conditions. The agreement also indicates whether a tuition scholarship, academic fee, and engineering fee will be paid by the department, and whether or not the out-of-state portion of the tuition (UF Differential) will be waived.

Comprehensive/Technology/Capital Fees: Students are responsible for comprehensive fees, including the technology fee, each semester. Out-of-state students must also pay a Capital Fee. See the Bursar's web page for a description of fees. The Capital Fee requirement cannot be waived and is not part of the tuition charges.

Taxes: Federal and state taxes, if applicable, are withheld from the assistantship stipend check, which is issued semi-monthly at approximately the first and sixteenth of each month. Students on summer assistantships who are not enrolled will be taxed at a higher, non-student rate.

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Financial Aid Reporting Requirement for Students with Assistantships

Students receiving financial aid need to report tuition scholarships and out of state waivers to their financial aid counselors.

Special Categories of Graduate Assistant

Five-year bachelor/master's students can hold assistantships in the last semester of their senior year and receive an in-state tuition scholarship, but their out-of-state fees cannot be waived. Bachelor/Master's students in the last semester of their senior year (level 46 students) who are offered assistantships cannot accept funds from the undergraduate scholarship funds and the graduate scholarship funds concurrently. Departments should discuss with each student the scholarship options before awarding an assistantship and issuing an agreement.

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Termination of Contract

If for any reason a student leaves the assistantship appointment before the end of this contract, please refer to the table below for tuition responsibility. Students must inform their departments and the Graduate School in writing if they terminate the assistantship prior to the contract ending date. Departments wishing to terminate a student contract should notify the student and the Graduate School in writing.

Tuition Obligation When Students Leave Assistantship

This table is based upon the university refund policy and will be used in calculating tuition obligations for students who leave the assistantship appointment before day 38 of the semester.

The comprehensive, technology, and capital fees are non-refundable and no reduction will be made after the beginning of classes.
*Student responsible for any amount not paid by department.
**Percent of tuition paid by department.

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Assistantship Contract Dates

Assistantship dates are the same each year and are as follows:

Departments must specify whether a student is to work over school or semester breaks. Students may be offered assistantships at any time of year. The tuition scholarship will be pro-rated for the remainder of the term in which a student is hired.

Additional Resources for Faculty and Staff

Managing Graduate Assistantships

The Tuition Remission Process

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