Study US: All about assistantships & scholarships

Sunit Survase, Director of Grad Dreams Education Consulting Pvt Ltd talks about the different types of assistantships and scholarships available in the US and how students can avail of them.

It's the universal norm that Assistantships / Scholarships / Financial Aid are given to meritorious students. To avail any kind of financial assistance at an international academic level, one has to prove one's capability among the others.

These funding options are intended to help the students meet their cost of studies partially or fully. Before applying to the universities in USA, one should know the exact nature of these funding options available.

What are assistantships?

These are part-time duties in research, teaching and / or academic activities.

The three major types are Teaching assistantship (TA), Research assistantship (RA) and Graduate assistantship (GA). This is a great opportunity for students to get the partial / full tuition waiver depending upon the nature of the assignment. Also some universities may offer the monthly stipend that can offset some or all of their tuition.

Types of assistantships

Teaching Assistants instruct and assist students with a variety of responsibilities. It may include tutoring, grading the exams or assignments, administer the tests, or even to assist the professors while having the class room discussions.

Students can apply for the TA positions in multiple departments in the university.

Research Assistants assist the professors in their ongoing research in their respective fields and in turn contribute to the departmental research activities.

The research activity is strictly administered by the department under the supervision of the professor responsible for the outcome of the research.

Most of the times the research assistant positions are available to students in their own department or in the interdisciplinary research projects, where more than one department contributes to the research.

Graduate Assistant (as the name suggests) positions are offered to the students enrolled at the post graduate degree level.

The graduate assistants can get a variety of academic or non-academic jobs, where they may or may not teach or assist in the departmental research. For example, a Computer Science graduate student with a GA position can work with university admission office or housing department or even in the athletics department for non academic work.

The students are permitted to work for only certain hours during a week to ensure that they get enough time to attend classes and for study purpose.

The working hours differ as per the specific rules of the respective university.

Scholarships and Financial Aid

Paying for your education abroad is definitely no easy task!

Every year most of the universities abroad are increasing their tuition fees by 10 to 20 percent. In USA, the reality is that only about 15 to 20 percent get some form of academic funding, rest of the students end up paying the full tuition fees from their pocket.

For International students, very little financial aid is available and it's really hard to secure the international student scholarship.

There are many universities in USA that provide financial aid and scholarships to international students.

Previous academic records play a major role in securing the financial grants.

The universities are concerned about how a particular student can contribute to his/her class, the department and finally the university. Hence it is offered to the most deserving students.

The students MUST prove their abilities and show their willingness to work hard and maintain good academic grades.

Following are some quick facts:

• Most of the times scholarship offered by any particular university is a onetime reward, which the student need not re-pay or work in the university in return.
• Some students may get one-time scholarship reward may range from $ 3000 to $ 15,000 or financial aid in the form of GA / RA / TA (as discussed above) along with the admission letter based on the previous academic record, even before securing the visa and joining the university.
• Most the financial grants come with the contractual agreement where the students are supposed to maintain good grades during the respective semesters. If the students fail to maintain required grades, then the department may discontinue the financial support.
• Some universities also offer need based financial grant to students when they demonstrate a financial need. Most of the times students do not have to repay these financial grants.
• Some universities also give financial aid to students who have some special qualifications, artistic and athletic talent. Majority of the undergraduate students get the financial aid based on their extracurricular activities.
• The harsh reality is majority of the financial grants are limited to US citizens.
• International students must plan their finances in advance, right from the stage of applying to various universities. In simple words, be realistic (in terms of what you can afford) while you apply, and study hard after you reach there.
• A word of caution: Beware of online scholarship scams! There are some websites imitating the official government websites and genuine student funding organisations. Check these websites for authenticity.
• Often students and parents are deceived with words like 'Federal' or 'National Foundation' etc online. They ask students to fill up certain forms and pay some kind of online fees. Be careful of these sites!