Graduate Assistantships

The Music Department may award five (5) assistantships each academic year (Fall and Spring semesters). Music Department graduate assistantships are not given for summer enrollment.

The current assistantship package includes (1) payment of all graduate course tuition up to nine (9) hours, and (2) a yearly stipend. Students who are granted an assistantship are expected to work in the Music Department a minimum of fifteen (15) hours per week but not more than twenty (20) hours per week.

Assistantships are awarded based on the overall needs of the Department.

All applications for graduate assistantships in the Music Department must be received by April 1 for the following academic year. Applications for an assistantship can be picked up or sent from the Music Office or the office of the Coordinator for Graduate Music Studies. Applications can be submitted to the offices of the Chair of the Music Department or the Coordinator of Graduate Music Studies.

Graduate assistantship awards are made for a two (2) year period. The two year award need not be consecutive years. In special circumstances, a graduate assistantship may be extended for a third year. The decision to extend an assistantship for a third year will be made by the Chair of the Music Department and with consent of the supervising professor of the candidate’s committee.

Graduate students who receive an assistantship award are assigned to a supervising Music Faculty member in the Department. Specific work assignments are made in consultation with the Departmental Chair, the Supervising Music Faculty member, the Coordinator of Graduate Music Studies and the graduate student. The graduate assistantship, in addition to all other financial aid options at Southwestern, is based on the student’s academic record, their progress in the degree, and their professional behavior and comportment with their peers and professors. It is the prerogative of the faculty of Southwestern to remove any financial aid, including, but not limited to, the Graduate Assistantship if the faculty deems that the candidate does not fulfill their professional obligations both in their service to the university or to their peers.