Funding To Attend Graduate School in the United States: An Update.

This report presents information on funds available for foreign graduate students wishing to attend graduate school in the United .3tates. An opening paragraph notes that the information was gathered by administrators who work with the evaluation and training of international graduate students to prepare them for graduate teaching assistantships. The first section details the types of graduate assistantships generally available: (1) graduate research assistants (GRA); (2) graduate laboratory assistants (GLA); and (3) graduate teaching assistants (GTA) and international teaching assistants (ITA). This section describes what is generally expected in each category, noting, for instance, that the word “laboratory” can have multiple meanings and that teaching may include diverse duties. The following section discusses funds in the form of tuition reductions or waivers and stipends. The next section looks at English-proficiency testing for international students and the institutional context for university requirements. This section also lists states and state institutional systems where testing is required. Also covered are types of tests, training of international students, timing of training, and the cost of testing and training. A final section explains how GRA funding is controlled and describes some problems students may encounter. Appended is a checklist for potential graduate students. (JB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

Funding to Attend Graduate School in the United States: An Update Patricia Byrd Georgia State University Atlanta, Georgia The information in this report was first presented at the OSEAS European Conference at La Grande Motte, France, on December 3, 1991. The report is based not my own experience in U.S. higher education but upon the information I have received from colleagues who work with the evaluation and training of international graduate students to prepare them for graduate teaching assistantship (personal communication, J.C. Constantinides and R. Smith). Types of Graduate Assistantships Generally, graduate education in the U.S. is financed through various types of assistantships rather than through full grants. That is, international students need to understand that funding will usually require significant amounts of work. Across the U.S., the following terms are used to designate basic types of graduate assistantships: 1. Graduate Research Assistant (GRAs) 2. Graduate Laboratory Assistants (GLAs) 3. Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) or ITAs (International Teaching Assistants) In most instances, a GRA works for a faculty member to carry out that person’s research projects. While such “research” might involve data collection or laboratory work, it might also be purely clerical, requiring typing and filing skills. GRAs can also be expected to do library-based research for faculty members, including the clerical tasks of picking up materials and returning them to the library. The work tasks are designed by the individual faculty member to fit her/his needs. The word laboratory has multiple meanings in a U.S. university. A GLA might be working in the chemistry lab, but s/he might also be working in the language laboratory. The work might involve providing technical support for the lab’s activities, but in some r\\ instances the GLA is actually a teacher, providing instructions for students in the lab section of a lecture class.

The “teaching” done by a GTA can run from team-teaching with other lab assistants kr, in a physics lab to lecturing in management class. There are no institutional much less national standards for what tasks are assigned under this category; use of the term can N change from department to department within the same university. The usual term now for international graduate teaching assistants is ITA although the term FTA (foreign teaching U.S. DEPARTMENT CF EDUCATION Once of Eaucational Research and Improvement E0 .”…ATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION “PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS CENTER (ERIC) 1 MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ‘0/This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization PATRICIA BYRD originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions slated 11115.5 docu meal do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).” assistant) is also used. In some institutions, the most highly sought position is that of Graduate Teaching Assistant with these students receiving higher pay. That situation can be reversed at other institutions, especially scientific or technical institutions that emphasize research over teaching. While the standard is often unspoken, the graduate student’s work week will more than likely be based on the U.S. tradition of the 40-hour work week so that assistantships are thought of in terms of 10-hour blocks. For example, a research assistantship might require 10 hours of work each week while a teaching assistantship might require approximately 20 hours each week. Such time estimations are in many cases wildly unrealistic. Just as productive faculty members seldom work only 40 hours each week so, too, graduate students can expect to see their work week expand to many additional hours to accommodate work, study, and life. GTAs are expected to do whatever is necessary to be good teachers; GRAs are expected to do whatever is necessary to complete the tasks that they are assigned. Graduate students and faculty understand that this apprenticeship system is supposed to mean that the faculty member will take some interest in the student’s further academic career, providing advice, writing letters of recommendation, pointing out job opportunities, and so forth. Thus, the assistantships provide not just funding for graduate study but also academic contacts that can be important in the student’s academic success.