Assistantships

Application Deadline: February 15

All application materials are due to the Graduate School by February 15 if applying for an assistantship starting in the fall. This deadline applies to both international and domestic students. (Assistantships are typically awarded for the academic year, starting in the fall.) The assistantship application should be sent directly to the Department of Economics - and is due February 15.

• Assistantships include tuition waivers, but not student fees, and are enough to cover living expenses.
• Admission to the program does not automatically imply the offer of an assistantship.
• The average level of students who receive assistantships in Economics:
  • GRE: 650-700 for each category
  • GPA: 3.2
  • TOEFL: above 600 (or above 230 on the scale of 0-300 used in some countries)

Assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis to qualified graduate students in both the M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Students who have been awarded assistantships will usually have their appointments renewed for the period of time that is reasonable to complete their degree requirements. However, renewal is based on evidence of good progress, especially the timely completion of candidacy exams.

Full-time graduate assistants are expected to work 20 hours per week, and to register for 9 semester hours of approved economics course work each regular semester.

New graduate assistants are usually appointed as research assistants. Typical duties involve working with a faculty member on such aspects of a research project as literature searches, data collection, and empirical estimation using standard computational programs. Later, a student may be assigned the duties of a teaching assistant. This involves teaching undergraduates introductory economic theory under the supervision of a faculty member.

In addition to assistantships awarded by the department, minorities and women who are U.S. citizens are eligible for the Rhoten A. Smith Assistantships awarded by the Graduate School.

For a Graduate Assistant application, go to www.grad.niu.edu/apply/index.shtml and click on the appropriate link.