Graduate Assistantships

Many graduate students in Statistics hold a teaching assistantship (TA) or research assistantship (RA). Most of these assistants are recruited by the Department and arrive with a signed Letter of Intent. These students will continue to receive their assistantship as long as they make good academic progress and perform their assistantship duties well. Some graduate students are given an assistantship after they start their graduate studies. These appointments are often given one semester at a time. Continuation of these appointments depends on academic progress, job performance and departmental needs. That is, students in this category will only continue to have an assistantship if the Department has need for their services. Good academic progress and job performance are not sufficient.

The financial support provided by your appointment is given in your Letter of Intent. The assistantship stipend changes every year so no dollar figure is included in this manual. We do have different levels which vary by $50 per month.

• RA1 - RA appointments for students without a masters in Statistics. (Most of these appointments are for 12 months.)
• RA2/TA1 - RA appointments for students with a masters in Statistics and TA appointments for students without a masters  in Statistics.
• TA2 - TA appointments for students with a masters in Statistics. (These are nine-month appointments.)

Graduate assistants receive a tuition scholarship.   These rules are subject to change so you should ask your advisor about these opportunities.  Graduate assistantships in 2008-2009 carry a stipend of $1700 to $1750 per month for half-time teaching duties and $1650 to $1700 per month for half-time research and research service duties. Teaching appointments usually are made for the 9-month period August 16 to May 15 and research appointments for 12 months, July 1 to June 30. Additional appointments or supplementary earnings for teaching assistants may be available in the summer. Appointments are awarded on the basis of academic ability and ability to do the assistantship duties.  A student who receives a departmental assistantship and is in good academic standing qualifies for a tuition scholarship. For Masters students, these scholarships cover half of in-state tuition, and for Ph.D. students, the scholarship covers full in-state tuition.  

Grants from federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of the Census, and Army Research Office make research appointments possible. Students supported by a grant receive stipends comparable to those of research assistants.

Special departmental scholarships are described on the Graduate Scholarship page.

Some of our students take summer internships with industry or government. Recent interns have gone to General Motors, 3M, Mayo Clinic,Quintiles Microsoft, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Most graduate assistantship offers are made between January 15 and April 15. Applications received at a later date will be kept on file for consideration as vacancies occur or new positions open.