Financial support

A variety of financial support may be available to students undertaking graduate study in CLASS. Doctoral programs and some master’s programs in the departments offer a limited number of funding packages that might include employment as a teaching or research assistant and/or various forms of scholarship or fellowship funding. All support packages are awarded on a competitive basis. Eligibility for all of these forms of graduate support requires full-time enrollment (generally 9 credit hours in the Fall and Spring semesters) and maintenance of a GPA of at least 3.0. Consult the website of the particular program you are interested in to find details of the forms of financial support that may be available for your studies and how to apply for them. Decisions regarding competitive graduate financial support are made by faculty selection committees in the departments and programs or the college.

Graduate Assistantships
Doctoral programs and some master’s programs in the departments offer employment stipends for Graduate Assistantships of various sorts, such as Teaching Assistant (TA) or Research Assistant (RA) positions. These generally require 20 hours per week of work supporting faculty instruction or research.

According to RSU employment rules, Graduate Assistants are classified as Student Employees. Student employees may work 50 percent FTE or less during the regular academic session, and up to 100 percent FTE during break periods (i.e., between academic semesters, summers and holidays). More details can be found here.