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Department of Sociology

Graduate Assistantships in the Department of Sociology

The USF Sociology Department typically has eight graduate student assistantships to award each year. Each assistantship carries a stipend of around $4,500 per semester and a tuition waiver (not including student fees) for 9 hours each semester. Barring budgetary shortfalls, it is anticipated that students with assistantships who continue to meet expectations will be awarded continuing assistantships up to the four-semester maximum. Award decisions are made by the three-member Sociology department graduate committee.

Graduate Assistantships in the Department of Sociology

Students with assistantships

  • must enroll in at least nine hours of course work for each semester of the assistantship;
  • should expect to work about 20 hours each week (typically during daytime hours)
    • In the first two semesters of assistantships, students typically serve as teaching assistants to faculty members teaching large-enrollment courses
    • Students might be assigned to full-charge teaching of one cause during their thrid and/or fourth semesters of internship. See the Sociology Graduate Student manual for criteria and details.
  • should enroll in the Teaching Sociology course in the spring semester of their first year of assistantship;
  • should attend workshops offered by the Center for Teaching Enhancement;
  • should be active members of the Sociology department graduate student community;
  • Assistantships awarded to students entering the MA program from outside the state of Florida require that students must apply at the Office of the Registrar for Florida residency immediately after entering the program

Application for Graduate Assistantships

Submit it to the Director of Sociology Graduate Studies (dloseke@cas.usf.edu) no later than March 15 of the year prior to the assistantship.

In no more than three pages:

  1. Discuss your goals upon completion of the Sociology MA program.
  2. Graduate assistants are paid for 20 hours of work per week, typically during daytime hours. While this means that full-time employment outside the campus is not possible, the assistantship pay is not sufficient for self-support. Discuss how an assistantship would affect your finances and/or your ability to progress through the MA program.
  3. Briefly discuss or simply list your professional development activities including, but not limited to, volunteer work pertaining to your sociological interests, papers given at professional conferences, special training, and so on.
  4. For continuing internships: List the courses you have completed and the grades you received as well as the courses in which you are presently enrolled.

Award Criteria:

Students entering the program:

  • GRE
  • GPA
  • letters of recommendation
  • writing

Continuing assistantships:

  • Progress through the program
    Students seeking second-year assistantships should have their thesis proposal
    defended by the end of summer of their first year
  • performance in classes
  • evidence of responsibility in the prior semester assistantship.