Graduate assistantships provide students with experience that will help them be successful in the collegiate job search and their eventual careers.

Graduate assistants receive a stipend for the academic year and waiver of tuition except for dedicated fees. Students holding the assistantship for an entire academic year are also given a tuition waiver (except for the dedicated fees) for the following summer. (Stipends vary by department; but as a rule of thumb, doctoral assistants in the Department of Biology received stipends of just over $9000 in 2000-2001.)

In most cases, graduate assistants work with senior faculty in teaching, although some are assigned other duties. In some cases, after students complete their assistantships, they may be able to teach courses as "contract faculty," thereby extending their teaching experience.

Availability and duties of assistantships vary among the eight major departments involved in the program.