Financial Aid Rules & Guidelines: Assistantships

Acceptance of an offer of financial support (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the condition affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties.

Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of the Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15, and subsequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made. Similarly, an offer by an institution after April 15 is conditional on presentation by the student of the written release from any previously accepted offer. It is further agreed by the institutions and organizations subscribing to the above resolution that a copy of this resolution should accompany every scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, and assistantship offer.

This resolution and a list of members and institutions that support it are on the CGS website in PDF format.

Issued by:

Marquette University Graduate School 
Zilber Hall, Room 205
P.O. Box 1881 
Milwaukee, WI 53201-1881 
Phone: (414) 288-7137
Fax: (414) 288-1902

Your scholarship will be applied to your Bursar account or show up as an anticipated payment, after we receive your acceptance of your offer and after you register for classes. Actual posting of scholarships typically is done one week before classes start. If you receive a scholarship after you already paid for your courses, you will be notified by the Bursar when you may receive a refund.

• Federal law requires verification of employment eligibility for all employees within 72 hours of employment. You must submit a completed I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form to the Graduate School. You are required to present specific documentation IN PERSON to the Graduate School. Refer to the reverse side of the I-9 for a listing of acceptable documentation. In addition to submitting an I-9 form, international students must also submit a letter of employment eligibility from Marquette’s Office of International Education. International students may not begin working until both documents are on file in the Graduate School.

• Assistants should complete the W-4 Employee’s Withholding form (on the Payroll website).

• All assistants must have, or must have applied for, a social security number.

All TAs with native languages other than American English are required to attend the International Teaching Assistant Orientation Program and take an English proficiency test on campus during the first or second weeks before their first semester. Based on the test results, TAs may be required to take one or more ESL course. Students may use their regular tuition scholarships to pay for the courses if required.

 Assistants must be registered full-time during the fall and spring semesters of their awards.

 Awards to students in Accounting, Business Administration, Economics, and Human Resources are jointly administered by the Graduate School and the Graduate School of Management. GSM students are expected to follow the rules and guidelines in this document.  I-9 forms for GAs are distributed and collected by the GSM and not the Graduate School (see section on Employment Documents). Additional conditions may be placed on awards by the GSM. If that is the case you will be notified in writing in your award letter, or separately. Requests for waivers of any of the rules in this document must receive the approval of the GSM.

Graduate assistants are issued Marquette ID cards that can be used to obtain discounts on purchases from the MU Spirit Shop and the Haggerty Museum of Art, and receive additional on campus printing privileges. If an assistant resigns or is terminated, they must return their keys and their assistantship ID cards to their departments. If the student is continuing his/her program, a new ID card will be issued at no charge.

Assistants are retained only if they are doing acceptable work, maintaining a 3.0 GPA (each semester and cumulatively), making progress towards their degrees, and are meeting their obligations to their departments and to the university in an acceptable manner. Before recommending a termination, the department chair or director of graduate studies shall, in most cases, inform the student in writing that there is danger of termination as soon as it becomes evident that his/her performance is unsatisfactory. The warning letter should:

• Outline the assistant's deficiencies.

• Suggest required remedies.

• Set a date when the matter will be reviewed to recognize improvement or recommend dismissal to the Graduate School.

In serious cases, a department may recommend to the Graduate School that an assistantship be terminated effective immediately. In these cases, the department is not obligated to use the above warning procedure. After making such a recommendation to the Graduate School, the department may immediately suspend any/all duties of the assistant pending the Graduate School’s decision regarding termination. Serious cases include, but are not limited to, violations of university policy/procedures and violations of ethical or professional codes or standards. Termination appeals should first be made to the student’s department then to the Graduate School. All stipends end on the date of termination.

Domestic Students

Unless prohibited by a funding sponsor and notified in their letter of award, domestic students with a full-time (50% effort/20 hour per week) TA/RA/GA appointment at Marquette may, at their discretion, be employed up to 10 additional hours per week outside of the University.  Students electing to have such outside employment up to 10 hours/week, do not need to inform the university, but should consider the following:

1. Working for a company fully or partially owned by the Chair of the student’s dissertation or thesis committee represents a possible conflict of interest. In such cases, the student should either not accept the outside employment or find a different chair for the thesis or dissertation committee.
2. Student should not seek outside employment at an organization/company that already funds that student’s assistantship or research.
3. Students should not seek outside employment at an organization/company that directly competes with the organization that funds the student’s assistantship or research.

Students wanting to work more than 10 hours per week, must disclose their arrangement with the Graduate School by completing the “Declaration of Outside Employment Form" The Graduate School will then facilitate a discussion between the student, and either the student’s mentor, DGS, or Department chair (the student can choose) to ensure the additional employment is not hindering the student’s academic progress or completion of assigned duties.   If the department offers the student a TA/RA/GA appointment, the student understands that duties of the appointment take priority over any external employment.

International Students

Due to Federal Regulations, international students here on a student visa cannot work on-campus more than the time dedicated to their full-time TA/RA/GA appointment.  With respect to off-campus employment, the Marquette Office of International Education has published guidelines for F-1 Student Employment 

Policy approved by UBGS on 4/22/2020.

You must register no later than the last date of registration of the first semester of your award term. If you fail to do so, your award may be rescinded.

Departments count on the services of their assistants for the entire academic year. If an assistant resigns, they must:

• Discuss the resignation with his/her department chair or director of graduate studies well in advance of the resignation.

• Submit a signed letter explaining the reason(s) for and exact date of the resignation to the Graduate School.

• Return their assistantship ID card and all issued keys to their department.

Stipends will be ended and final checks will be prorated to the date of resignation.

 Checks are issued bi-weekly and disbursed in 10 payments each semester, over the academic year (August-May) unless stated otherwise. Assistants must sign up for direct deposit online via Through MyJob. Instructions are available on the Payroll Department’s web site. 

Graduate students who receive assistantships that are centrally funded by the Graduate School, and that are offered prior to the close of late registration, qualify for additional scholarships to pay their student service fees. Qualified students will be notified in their award letters if their award includes a fee scholarship. The Graduate School does not provide student service fee scholarships for assistantships that are funded by other departments or by faculty grants. Grant-funded assistants should contact their supervisors or grant principal investigators if they have questions.

Your stipend is taxable income and is reported to the IRS. You will receive an earnings statement from Payroll in January to submit with your income taxes. FICA taxes (social security) are not deducted from fall and spring stipends. FICA is charged to the stipends of assistants in summer unless assistants are registered and provide proof of their summer registration to the Payroll Department.

All assistants must complete Title IX and FERPA training and participate in assistantship orientation programs offered by their departments.  Additionally, new teaching assistants are required to participate in mandatory TA training from the Graduate School.

Most full assistantships include tuition scholarships to pay for 9 credits in fall and 9 credits in spring. The dollar value of your award is stated in your offer letter. Your award will not pay for more than this amount. You must pay for all charges taken that exceed the dollar amount of your scholarship and for tuition/fees related to courses that are not covered by your scholarships.

Your award letter shows the amounts of your scholarship allotted to fall, spring, and summer terms. Unused scholarship money from one term is not automatically carried forward to following terms. You should contact the Graduate School to request the transfer of scholarship money from one term to another. Award money cannot be transferred from one aid year to another. Each aid year begins with the fall term and includes the following spring and summer terms. Scholarships will not pay for more than 6 thesis or 12 dissertation credits.

Scholarships may only be used to pay for valid courses that are directly related to your degree.

Valid courses include:

Graduate-level courses numbered 5000 and above that count toward your degree.

Invalid courses include:

• Audited courses.

• Undergraduate-level courses taken for undergraduate credit including prerequisites or deficiency courses.

• Personal preference courses within or outside of your discipline that will not count toward your degree and that have not been approved for scholarship coverage by both your department and the Graduate School in writing.

Assistants are required to work approximately 20 hours per week. Starting and ending dates, duties, distribution of hours over the semester, and assignments to faculty are made by each department chair or director of graduate studies. Some departments may also require that their assistants work during regular university recesses such as winter and spring holidays. F-1 visa students may not work more than 20 hours per week while school is in session.