Graduate Assistantships at Cal

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

Hi all,
I was hoping someone could answer a few questions I had regarding assistantship oppurtunities at Cal.

  1. How competitive is it for a MS student to get appointed as a Research/Teaching Assistant?
  2. Is there a statistic available on what proportion of Masters students hold some sort of funded assistantship?
  3. What qualifications are vital to get appointed for these positions?
    Would really appreciate any help!
2

I’m not going to Cal, my D does (formerly an undergrad, now a PhD student). She is in EECS.

From what I learned from her, good teaching assistants (TA) are always in high demand. If you’ve completed a class with good grade (B+ minimal), you have a good shot at becoming a TA for that class. She taught a summer class and had a hard time finding qualified TAs for the class.

See here for (U)GSI qualification details: https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/gsis/prospective/ugsi

(GSI positions are much more selective than TA positions).

RA is a totally different ball game. The most important thing is the relationship between you and the PI. My D got her first RA position (and once you’ve got the first one and know how expand your network, other opportunities follow) by attending a seminar at Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing and talking to the presenters and the professors attending the seminar. In her words, “In a normal classroom, there is 1 person (the instructor) who may not have any opening, and 1500 people (students) who want to be RA. In a seminar, there may be 7 people (professors) have openings for RAs, and 50 people (students) who want to be RA. You calculate the odds.”

In general, opportunities are abundant, but noone will hand them to you; you have to look for them.