Graduate Assistantships Resource Center

Graduate Assistant Eligibility

Office of Graduate Studies and University financial resources are used to support full-time, degree-seeking graduate students. Eligibility requirements are applicable to all graduate assistant classification codes regardless of classification code and/or funding source. To receive an assistantship, the graduate student must meet the following eligibility requirements:

  • Accepted into a graduate degree program and meet the qualifications as specified by the graduate program.
  • Meet the academic qualifications as specified by the GA job code.
  • Meet appropriate verbal test scores if English in not the primary language.
  • Maintain an overall minimum grade point average (GPA) and degree program GPA of 3.00.
  • Enroll full-time during the semester(s) appointed as a graduate assistant. Full-time enrollment is considered 9 graduate credit hours in the fall semester, 9 graduate credit hours in the spring semester, and 6 graduate credit hours in the summer semester. If a graduate assistant is enrolled in the last semester of his/her program of study, the number of registered semester hours may be less than the full-time requirement.
  • Graduate assistants must comply with all Office of Graduate Studies enrollment requirements to retain their assistantship as stated in the polices section of the Graduate Catalog.
  • Students appointed with <0.25 total FTE are not eligible for tuition waivers.

PLEASE NOTE: International students from countries where English is not the official language who want to be considered for a teaching assistantship (9183 & 9184) must show proficiency in spoken English even if their TOEFL has been waived for admission to a graduate program. They need a minimum score of 26 on the spoken portion of the Internet-based TOEFL (iBT) or 160 on the spoken portion of the TOEIC Test administered by ETS. Please refer to the the International Teaching Assistant (ITA) Handbook for students who do not meet this criteria.