MFA Graduate Assistantships | Art | School of the Arts

Graduate Assistantships

GTA-ships are awarded on a competitive basis each year. Please visit the Graduate School’s website for general information on Graduate Assistantship.

First time GTAs must have a meeting with the Graduate Director and go over “GTA Guidelines and Rules.”
First time GTAs must enroll and attend GRAD 701S orientation and training session held at the start of each semester.
GTAs are required to fulfill Sexual Harassment, FERPA, and PeopleSoft training courses online.
To be eligible for an assistantship, students must be admitted to a degree-granting program and be in good academic standing. GTAs must have an overall GPA of at least 3.0 and must be continuously enrolled in at least 9 graduate level credits (600-700) throughout the duration of the assistantship.
GTAs must assist an assigned faculty supervisor for one semester prior to being assigned to instruct their own course as Instructor of Record.
It is mandatory for GTAs to work ten hours per week for a part-time assistantship and twenty hours per week for a full-time assistantship.
GTA report dates are the same as faculty reporting dates each semester. See Academic Calendar on the university’s website.
An assigned graduate faculty will directly supervise all GTAs.
GTAs are required to submit a weekly work report to their supervising faculty every Friday.
Supervising faculty are required to initial and submit copies of the weekly work report by-weekly to the Office of Graduate Director: calendar provided.

International students serving as Teaching Assistants must meet a minimum Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 550 (paper version), 213 (computer version) and pass the SPEAK Test with a score of 50. (To make an appointment to take the SPEAK test, please contact IELC at 784-6075. The cost of the test is $60). If you have taken the iBT (internet based version) of the TOFEL you must score 79/80 total and have a score of 24 on the speaking section of the test. The International Language Testing System (IELTS) score of a 7 can substitute for the TOFEL. (A score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) can be substituted for the Speak Test).
Students who register for nine (9) graduate credits or more in a semester are considered full-time.
For graduate assistants on any contract, six (6) graduate credits or more constitute full-time.
To be considered full-time for financial aid purposes, all graduate students, including those on assistantships, must be enrolled in nine (9) graduate credits, to be considered part-time for financial aid reporting purposes you must be enrolled in five (5) graduate credits.
For those graduate students who are required to take Intensive English Language Center Bridge Courses, these courses can be considered part of full registration upon approval by the Dean of the Graduate School but these courses will not count for Federal Financial Aid purposes.