Students at UNL are usually supported through either a Teaching Assistantship or a Research Assistantship. Assistantships are awarded on a competitive basis annually, and may be renewed with satisfactory performance.
Teaching Assistantships
Teaching assistants perform a variety of duties, including teaching introductory courses, supervising lab sections, and grading. Teaching assistants are either assigned their own course section or work closely with a faculty member or graduate student mentor.
Research Assistantships
A research assistant will do statistical consulting, data analysis, programming, and theoretical research in partnership with a faculty member in Statistics. Research assistantships are typically grant-funded, awarded on a year-to-year basis, and rarely awarded to applicants prior to being here for at least one semester.
International students applying for teaching assistantships
International students applying for teaching assistantships need to present evidence of excellent communications skills with their application. This includes letters of recommendation attesting to these skills and high TOEFL/IELTS test scores (at least 100 on TOEFL iBT, 600 on TOEFL PBT, or 7 on IELTS). All international teaching assistants need to also take a short course and an exam given by the Institute for International Teaching Assistants (ITA) late in the summer prior to the fall semester. This course is offered by the Office of Graduate Studies in cooperation with Programs in English as a Second Language (PIESL) faculty.