Many undergraduate students consider the possibility of attending graduate school after graduation. High tuition costs and heavy course loads, however, can disallow time to garner real-world experience and deter some students from applying. Enter graduate assistantships: paid, part-time, on-campus positions for graduate students.
Graduate assistantships at the University of Mississippi cover payment of either 100% or 75% of an awarded student’s tuition and offer students the opportunity to gain experience through student work.
Drew Roberts, an integrated marketing communications graduate student from Mobile, Ala., completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Montevallo in Montevallo, Ala. When deciding where he was going to graduate school, cost was a major factor. He eventually landed on continuing his education at UM, where he boasts two assistantships in the School of Journalism and New Media.
“I was looking around for programs I wanted — IMC or advertising type programs — and Ole Miss seemed like it had the best to offer,” Roberts said. “I was talking with my parents (and they were) like, ‘Okay, just make sure you’re able to pay for this in a good way.’ Assistantships are necessary for being able to pay for it, and thankfully, the IMC program’s pretty generous with how to get assistantships and I was able to get a half-time assistantship to pay full tuition.”
Roberts works for Professor of Media and Communication Graham Bodie and Associate Professor of Journalism Instruction Vanessa Gregory.
“So last year, I helped design (Bodie’s) website. I made a bunch of scripted videos for his LinkedIn. Right now, we’re building this YouTube channel, so (there’s) a lot of stuff that I can put on a resume that isn’t just busy work, pencil-pushing stuff or something like that,” Roberts said.
For Roberts, the flexibility of his work with Bodie is a plus.
“It’s remote. I do it on my time between my tasks during the day, and we have weekly meetings to talk about that there,” Roberts said.
Roberts’ role with Gregory is more of a teaching assistant position in which he designs exams and grades assignments.
McCallister Wadleigh, a sports management graduate student from Slidell, La., who earned her bachelor’s degree from UM, has a graduate assistantship with the Department of Campus Recreation that primarily involves helping student workers in their studies, among other things.
According to Wadleigh, being a graduate assistant allows her to develop closer relationships with those students than she otherwise would be able to do.
“The majority of my work consists of taking care of the facility’s students, so I’m in charge of their payroll and their professional development and their scheduling,” Wadleigh said. “I kind of get to form those more personal relationships with (the students) than my boss has time to. I can really help pour into them and help them to grow and just make sure everything’s running smoothly. If they have any questions, they come to all of us (graduate assistants) first.”
These closer relationships allow Wadleigh to develop skills in player development, a career field she hopes to pursue after graduation.
“When I graduate and work in player development, college football would be my dream job,” Wadleigh said. “They basically help athletes develop outside of football, right? … Because I do a lot of professional development with our student workers right now, I think that will be very transferable onto the professional development and personal development I hope to do with players one day.”
Wadleigh believes that her graduate assistantship has developed not only her technical skills, but her soft skills, as well.
“It’s teaching me skills and the professionalism I think that I was lacking from just finishing my undergrad,” Wadleigh said.
Because of opportunities to fund her graduate degree and the rich experiences that have accompanied her role, Wadleigh insists that a graduate assistantship is crucial for anyone considering graduate studies.
“My biggest advice would be to start looking early, as soon as possible, because the longer you wait, the fewer opportunities you’re going to have for graduate assistant positions. But also, just for graduate schools in general, I would say that a graduate assistantship is very important, and I would highly stress it to anyone,” Wadleigh said.
Roberts echoed the importance of graduate assistantships.
“I would say definitely do it. Definitely pursue it, because grad school, a lot of times, is not cheap, and you’re really setting yourself up for a much better experience post-grad if you are eliminating a lot of the costs that come with it,” Roberts said. “It just puts you in a working mindset that makes it easier to transition to the (career) world.”
