Research and Teaching and Assistantships
A limited number of graduate assistantships are available to well-qualified applicants at both the Master’s and Doctoral level. Teaching Assistantships are used to support the instructional programs in the department. Only in exceptional cases will the department award teaching assistantships to graduate candidates before they have successfully completed at least one quarter of ECE coursework at PSU.
Chances of selection improve as a student establishes a solid work record in ECE classes. If you are interested in serving as a TA, make sure to submit the online application per instructions. A TA for a particular class is chosen by the instructor responsible for that class. If you want to serve as TA for a particular class, you also need to meet with the instructor and convince them that you have the skill and knowledge to teach the material in the class.
Note that the lab equipment in the PSU labs is much more complex than that in most undergraduate programs. If you are applying for a lab TA position, it will be necessary to spend some time learning how to use the equipment. Lab TAs are also required to carefully and completely do all the lab exercises for the lab class before the students start on them.
Research Assistantships in support of specific research programs are assigned by the professor who is the Principal Investigator of the project. Admission as a regular student, full-time enrollment, and good academic standing are prerequisites for receiving any Research Assistant position.