Guide to Funding in a U.S. University by Vikas Bansal, Grad student, UMBC.
Funding is on top most priority in every international student’s list. Funding is given in three ways by any university. Most common ways are Teaching Assistant (TA), Research Assistant (RA), Graduate Assistant and graders. Now I am going to discuss about these positions one by one.
Please ignore any grammatical, fragmentation, structural error. This article is a side effect of (5 minutes)*20 boring bus rides.
Teaching Assistant
Work
Assisting a professor in managing a class during semester. Some of the responsibilities may include office hours to solve doubts of students, correcting exams and invigilation during exam.
Compensation
Very very decent compensation. They pay for 9 credits per semester. And also $1400 for living expenses (way more than what you actually need to survive). Compensation may change for half TAs (half everything).
How to get?
No specific criteria for this type of funding. It is generally allotted by program director at the time of admission.
Most of the TAs are allotted with admit letter with one year of contract. High gre scores, relevant experience, research profile and gpa ate dome deciders in TA during admission.
Very few TAs are given after admission letter. In first semester if your program director is taking a course, make sure you perform excellent in that as TAs are allotted by him only.
My opinion
Financially chill job but doesn’t add to your resume as relevant work experience.
TAship is like a surprise package, it may come when you least expect it or may never come. For students who definitely need funding can not rely on TAship.
>> Next Page – Research Assistant
sir i have completed my MSc in microbiology so i would like to apply for Phd in USA how i have to contact proffesor whwther i have to contact before GRE or after GRE
Well my question is for a completely different place to Germany. Do these things are equally applicable to Germany?
Just what i need right now! Thanks raghu for this post. Gonna bookmark this one
hi i am civil engineering student, i am in last semester of my b.tech
i want to apply for spring 2014 would the graduate school will offer T.A,
R.A type of funding in spring intake.
Hi Junaid, Chances for RA/TA positions are a little less in the Spring semester. You may have to wait till the next Fall semester. But there is nothing impossible. If you have a strong application you may get some sort of financial assistance in Spring semester as well. Else you may have to wait till the next semester.
All the best!
Hi, Aren’t any of these opportunities available for undergraduates? Which jobs are available for the students in UG?
Hi Kashif, Chances of TA/RA are relatively less compared to students pursuing graduate programmes. Reason being undergraduates are not exposed much to research or teaching experiences to contribute to these jobs. What undergraduate students can expect is merit based scholarships which again are tough to get.
Keep your hopes high nothing is impossible. Prepare well for SAT and TOEFK/IELTS. High scores always help making such chances.
Thank you HSB for this very useful information. Actually I was looking for these information. Thanks a lot.
Very nice informative article!