What is a Graduate Assistant?

A Graduate Assistant (GA) is a graduate student who is hired to assist faculty with their normal courses of duty. GAs may be assigned as a research assistant or a teaching assistant depending on faculty and department needs. GAs are required to work 20 hours per week. In return, they receive a tuition fee waiver as well as a monthly stipend. Currently, the monthly stipend is $1,400. Since Fall 2003, the student's health insurance is also covered by the assistantship. For more information, visit the GA page at the Graduate School website.

A limited number of graduate assistantships are available to qualified applicants with preference given to the doctoral candidates.

How Does a Graduate Student
Become a Graduate Assistant?

Applications can be obtained from the Educational Specialties Department Office or printed out from the this website. See the application form below. Applications consist of statements of career interests, past employment, and educational experience. GAs are asked to specify areas of interest so efforts can be made to place GAs with faculty members with similar interests. GAs are asked to fill out an application every year to be eligible for re-hire.

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Eligibility for Hire

To be eligible for a GA position, students must be enrolled in at least 6 graduate level credits (12 maximum), have a 3.0 current or undergraduate GPA, and be admitted to the graduate school without conditional, provisional, or probationary status. Graduate special students and students on probation are not eligible for a GA position.

Hiring Process

Deadlines for applications are October 1st for spring positions and March 1st for fall positions. Students applying will receive notification by December 15th for spring appointments and May 15th for fall. All new hires will be required to attend a new graduate assistant orientation through the Graduate School in addition to an orientation from the department. Teaching assistants will have to attend additional training sessions offered by the Graduate School. 

Each spring, the top applicants will be selected for fall. The number of applicants selected will be based on funding and the number of positions allocated to the department. Priority will be given to doctoral applicants, followed by master's students with research and teaching experience, and finally, first-time licensure students. Fall GAs will continue in the spring pending an acceptable performance evaluation and available funding. 

GAs are eligible to hold a position for 3 years maximum as a master's student and 5 years maximum as a doctoral student. This does not imply that GAs are guaranteed positions from one academic year to the next, as these decisions are made each spring.

Questions?

If you still have questions, feel free to email the Department Chair, Dr. Christine Cheney, at cheney@unr.edu or call her at (775) 784-4383 x 2002.

The Application Form. You can download a printable application form, fill it out, and send it to the address below. Click here to download the application form.

Department of Educational Specialties
University of Nevada Reno
Mail Stop 299
Reno, NV 89557-0251
USA

Phone: (775) 784-4383
Fax: (775) 784-4384

The Application Form is in PDF (Portable Document Format). You need, however, the Acrobat Reader to view the file. If you do not already have the Acrobat Reader installed, you may click the image to download a free copy.

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