The department welcomes applications for positions as Graduate Assistants. Successful applicants normally receive a stipend and/or a waiver of tuition. Graduate students in the languages typically work as a team with their supervisor to help teach lower-division courses during the spring and fall semesters on campus; graduate students in English and TESOL may be assiged teaching positions, or they may be assigned research-related positions, such as working for individual professors on various projects, working for UNI's Culture and Intensive English Program (CIEP), or working for the nation's oldest literary magazine, the North American Review.

Generally, tuition scholarships and/or assistantships are assigned for one year for students in the languages and for one semester for students in English and TESOL. At the end of that period, students are encouraged to apply for a continuation of funding, or if they were originally denied funding, then for a new request for funding as deadlines approach. For the fall term, the application deadline is February 1; for the spring, November 1.

Applicants must be already admitted to degree status graduate studies before their applications for assistantships can be considered.

U.S. citizens and permanent residents call (319) 273-2821 or e-mail kris.knebel@uni.edu to request appropriate applications. Attention potential international students: If you are not a U.S. citizen or if you are not a permanent resident of the U.S., you MUST apply for admission through the International Services Office.

Graduate Assistant applicants should have two letters of recommendation sent to:

Graduate Program in [name of program]

Department of Languages and Literatures

Baker Hall 117

University of Northern Iowa

Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0502

The assistantship applications should be sent to the same address. If you are applying for an academic year, please be sure to indicate BOTH a fall AND a spring semester on the application forms. For example, if you were applying for the 2012-2013 academic year, you would indicate BOTH Fall 2012 AND Spring 2013.

Many guides are available to advise applicants to graduate school about how best to present themselves when applying for admission and financial support. The links below provide access to essays written by the DLL's own Vince Gotera, Professor of English and one of the editors of the North American Review, who offers his wisdom after having spent years advising potential graduate students and serving on admissions committees:

Click here to read Dr. Gotera's "How to Get Great Recommendations"

Click here to read Dr. Gotera's "How to Write a Great Statement of Purpose"

Click here to read Dr. Gotera's "The Grad School Letter Arrives . . . Now What?"