Many Chinese students have or hope to obtain graduate assistantships to cover the cost of their education in the United States. Here is some information for prospective graduate assistants:

Terms. Graduate assistant is the generic term for a graduate student hired by an academic department (usually his or her own) to perform some kind of service. Teaching assistants do some form of teaching, perhaps presenting lectures, conducting discussions, or meeting with individual students who need academic help. Research assistants help faculty members with research projects or other scholarly activities.

Who gets assistantships? Generally speaking, graduate assistantships are awarded to students with the best academic records. In some fields of study, graduate assistantships are relatively plentiful, and most or all graduate students in the department will have one. In other fields assistantships are scarce, so competition is fierce.

In the case of non-native speakers of English, obtaining a teaching assistantship normally requires satisfactory performance on a test of English fluency.

Paperwork. Before they can be paid for their work, graduate assistants need to complete various employment-related forms and to obtain a U.S. social security number. All this can entail visiting various offices, and some delays.

Relationship with supervisor. A graduate assistant’s supervisor is essentially his or her “boss” on a job. The supervisor may or may not be the student’s own academic adviser.

Conflicts with own studies. Most graduate assistants, American as well as foreign, must deal with a built-in conflict between their assistantship duties and their own studies. Performing well as a graduate assistant can prevent graduate students from performing well in their own studies because graduate-assistant duties can be very time-consuming.

Unexpected interruptions in duties. Graduate students sometimes cannot carry out their assistantship duties for personal reasons such as illness, accident, or childbirth. Assistantship letters or contracts should specify procedures for such instances (for example, whether the stipend will continue, who will carry out the duties for the person who temporarily cannot work, etc.)