Teaching Assistantship

The CRDM Program offers a few Teaching Assistantships each year to newly admitted students with a yearly stipend, payment of health insurance, and tuition. Students are responsible for the University fees each semester (see Cashier’s Office for current rates). Financial support, through the Graduate Student Support Plan (GSSP), requires the student to be registered for a minimum of 9 credit hours each semester. Course hours over 9 hours must be paid by the student. Teaching Assistants in a doctoral program are eligible for the tuition support and health insurance for a maximum of eight semesters.

TAs who do not meet requirements to be teaching in Communcation or English will be assigned other duties until they have enough coursework and will also be required to take a training course (COM 585 or ENG 511) to prepare them for a specific teaching assignment.

Graduate Assistantship

The availability of Graduate Assistantships varies from year to year. Students may be assigned to work along with faculty as graduate assistants or administrative assistants. In the past, our students have held graduate assistantships at:

•  First-Year Writing Program, which serves most NCSU students in their first year and appoints a Gradate Assistant Director to help train Graduate Teaching Assistants;
•  NCSU Libraries, dedicated to empowering creative teaching, world-class research, and equitable and inclusive community engagement;
•  Professional Writing Program, offering courses that introduce students to the kinds of communication tasks they can expect to perform after graduation and in the workplace;

In addition, students have worked with several faculty members as research assistants on sponsored grants. Normally a graduate assistant stipend matches or exceeds that of TAs, and provides support for tuition support and health insurance provided by the Graduate Student Support Plan. Graduate assistants will provide support for the Professor’s ongoing research and have the opportunity to develop their own related research projects.

Other Funding Opportunities

While many of the additional funding opportunities are offered through NC State, there is a maximum number of hours a full time student can work for the university (9 hours). 

1. Supplemental and Emergency Financing
   • The Student Emergency Fund was established by the Division of Academic and Student Affairs to help ensure that NC State students have access to the support and resources they need to successfully recover from unexpected financial crises.
2. NCSU Job Board
   • Students who are looking for additional temporary or part-time work should check the NCSU Job Board. It is updated frequently and contains job postings from every department on campus.
3. Tutoring
   • There are opportunities for employment with the Academic Success Center. They hire mentors, tutors, and writing consultants to work one-on-one with undergraduate and graduate students. The Academic Support Program for Student Athletes (ASPSA) regularly hires tutors to help student athletes with their coursework. Summer work is also available.
4. Short-Term Emergency Loans
   • Loans of up to $500 to meet emergency expenses may be obtained on short notice at the Financial Aid Office, 2005 Harris Hall. These loans are designed for short term emergency use. More information can be found at the Financial Aid Office.
5. Summer Employment
   • There are several options available to CRDM students interested in summer employment. Some examples of summer employment opportunities available to students are teaching summer course on campus, teaching online classes, grading for online classes, and research positions.
   • There are two summer sessions, Summer I (May/June) and Summer II (June/July). If you are interested in teaching a summer class, you should contact the Department Heads directly.