Graduate Research Assistantships (GRAs)

Graduate Research Assistants are graduate students who are employed by the university to assist professors with their research.  GRAs are paid a monthly salary as compensation for their service to the university (they additionally may receive a tuition fellowship and/or stipend). 

Common Duties

Research may involve either a sponsored project or on a non-sponsored project, such as writing a book in the student’s academic area.  In either case, graduate research assistants’ work should produce generalizable knowledge.

GRAs should be under the direction of a faculty mentor and research training for them is on a one-on-one basis with the mentor.  The research conducted should be at a high level with the research resulting in generalizable knowledge with the student a likely contributing author of a published paper, report, book, etc.

How Can I Become a Graduate Research Assistant?

Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) are appointed at the time of admission or selected by a faculty member. GRAs are limited and not available in all departments. If you are interested in a GRA, please reach out to your department to inquire about current availability. The Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships does not offer graduate research assistantships and cannot provide students with information about a department's current availability.