Assistantships
Graduate assistantships help students reach professional goals while advancing the mission of the Department of Poultry Science at UGA. Graduate students at UGA are eligible for several graduate assistantships, including teaching assistantship, lab assistantship, research assistantships and general graduate assistantships. Assistantships offered depend on student qualifications and the needs of the department.
Most graduate study in this department is funded through an assistantship that offers students a stipend, usually of at least one-third time. Stipends of one-third time require 13 hours of work per week in addition to any teaching duties.
How to Obtain Stipend:
Graduate school assistantship – Awarded each year on a competitive basis following nomination of the student by his/her department.
Graduate Recruitment Opportunities (GRO) assistantship – Awarded on a competitive basis to students nominated by the department that are first generation, educationally or economically disadvantaged, or have some aspects of a uniquely diverse background.
Presidential Graduate Fellows Program – Designed to recruit Ph.D. students, provides five years of support.
Departmental research and teaching assistantship – These are awarded each semester on a competitive basis by the Department of Poultry Science, and are subject to availability. Departmental assistantships will be terminated after six consecutive semesters for M.S. students, nine consecutive semesters for Ph.D. students and 12 consecutive semesters for “direct” Ph.D. students (including summers).
Research assistantships through grants obtained by individual faculty members – research and teaching requirements are determined by the individual faculty member.
Research assistantships obtained by the individual student – These are available through national and private funding agencies. For example, the National Science Foundation offers the Graduate Research Fellowship for M.S. students and the Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant for Ph.D. Students.
Credit Hour Requirements
A full load for graduate students is nine credit hours in the fall and spring and six credit hours in the summer. Students on assistantship are required to carry at least 12 credit hours of coursework and/or research per semester (nine hours in the Summer). Students not on assistantship must take at least nine credit hours (six hours in the Summer) to be considered full-time students. Graduate students using university facilities and/or staff time must be registered for a minimum of three credit hours. Students must also register for three credit hours during the semester they intend to graduate, regardless of whether they are on campus. For all degree programs, students must exhibit continuous enrollment throughout the course of the degree, which means enrolling in at least three credit hours for at least two semesters per academic year until the degree is obtained. A leave of absence allows a student with extreme circumstances to be temporarily exempt from this rule, and must be applied for through the graduate school.
Graduate students may hold multiple assistantships, but cannot exceed 20 hours of work per week. Students must maintain full-time status by taking at least twelve hours of graduate credit in the fall and spring semesters and nine hours of graduate credit in summer semester.