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GA OVERLOADS
Graduate School > Administration > Policies > GA Overloads
 
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GENERAL

Graduate Students are generally permitted to accept combined assistantships and other employment not to exceed 20 hours per week during term time. In the summer and interim terms, the limit is 40 if they are in school. If not in school in those terms then may go above 40.

All other qualifying requirements for employment and assistantship appointments must be satisfied during all terms, i.e.:

  • Must be admitted and enrolled as degree seeking graduate students, and
  • Must be maintaining a GPA of at least 3.0, and
  • Cannot be non-degree status.

REGISTRATION AND EMPLOYMENT

The Graduate Catalog sets out the minimum required and maximum recommended hours that a student can be registered during the fall and spring semesters for differing levels of employment hours. Section 4.5 of the Graduate Catalog gives more detailed information regarding assistantships and registration.

Here are the minimum required and maximum recommended registration hours for the different levels of combined FTE:

Combined FTE of all employment Minimum Hours Required Maximum Hours Recommended
1.00 (40 hrs) 1 3
0.75 (30 hrs) 3 6
0.50 (20 hrs) 6 9
0.25 (10 hrs) 9 12

In order to hold an assistantship, students MUST be registered for the minimum required hours. Maximum hours are generally at the discretion of the student’s academic department however the Graduate School recommends that the limits above should only be exceeded in circumstances where the academic department is satisfied that grades will not suffer.

OVERLOADS

The Graduate School no longer needs to approve overloads involving just courses or both courses plus assistantship FTE. The text and table in Section 4.5 of the Graduate Catalog that address overload approval both have been edited to reflect this change. It is strongly recommended that departments stay within recommended guidelines, but final approval rests with departments.

The overload proviso has been in the Catalog for many years, because the Graduate Council's faculty members were concerned with students feeling pressured into taking more hours and/or a higher FTE level than they were comfortable with, and the Council also has been concerned with students' not being able to make adequate progress toward degree completion. The Graduate School continues to urge caution when considering large course and/or FTE loads and will continue to monitor overloads even though prior approval is not needed. We especially will monitor whether or not academic warnings and suspensions increase because of this change and, if they do, we will track the student’s and department’s overload history for signs of a positive correlation. We hope and expect that student loads will be designed intelligently to provide meaningful GTA and GRA experiences, while allowing students to move efficiently through their degree programs.

As always, international students are subject to the federally mandated 20-hour work limit during fall and spring semesters.
 
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