Twenty-five public and three private nonprofit universities employed more than 3,000 graduate assistants each in 2015. Among the colleges that had the highest ratios of graduate assistants to students were the University of California at San Francisco, where the assistants worked mainly in health care and research, and the Georgia Institute of Technology, where more than half of full-time graduate students served as research or teaching assistants in 2015. Among private institutions, the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology had the highest ratios of graduate assistants to students. At both universities, the majority of such assistants worked in research. While just over half of all graduate assistants at public institutions in 2015 had teaching roles, at private nonprofit institutions, graduate assistants were somewhat more likely to be doing research than teaching
4-year public institutions
1. | U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | 5,610 | 122 | 2,711 | 59 |
2. | U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 5,297 | 105 | 1,871 | 37 |
3. | U. of Wisconsin at Madison | 5,197 | 122 | 2,180 | 51 |
4. | U. of Texas at Austin | 5,165 | 101 | 2,997 | 59 |
5. | U. of California at Los Angeles | 4,975 | 119 | 2,413 | 58 |
6. | Purdue U. at West Lafayette | 4,857 | 120 | 1,830 | 45 |
7. | U. of California at Berkeley | 4,561 | 119 | 2,993 | 78 |
8. | U. of California at Davis | 4,013 | 114 | 2,085 | 59 |
9. | Ohio State U. | 3,986 | 68 | 2,137 | 36 |
10. | U. of Maryland at College Park | 3,967 | 104 | 2,748 | 72 |
11. | U. of Florida | 3,943 | 78 | 1,389 | 27 |
12. | Pennsylvania State U. at University Park | 3,855 | 81 | 2,936 | 62 |
13. | U. of California at San Diego | 3,797 | 115 | 2,227 | 68 |
14. | U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor | 3,712 | 85 | 1,875 | 43 |
15. | Texas A&M U. at College Station | 3,528 | 55 | 1,818 | 28 |
16. | Georgia Institute of Technology | 3,389 | 135 | 1,005 | 40 |
17. | Virginia Tech | 3,382 | 104 | 1,422 | 44 |
18. | U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | 3,355 | 115 | 1,457 | 50 |
19. | U. of Illinois at Chicago | 3,324 | 114 | 1,327 | 46 |
20. | U. of Georgia | 3,320 | 92 | 898 | 25 |
21. | U. of Washington | 3,179 | 70 | 1,474 | 32 |
22. | Arizona State U. | 3,076 | 59 | 2,095 | 40 |
23. | North Carolina State U. | 3,048 | 90 | 1,390 | 41 |
24. | Michigan State U. | 3,029 | 60 | 1,309 | 26 |
25. | Florida State U. | 3,027 | 74 | 1,780 | 44 |
26. | U. of California at Irvine | 2,949 | 96 | 1,529 | 50 |
27. | Georgia State U. | 2,841 | 89 | 501 | 16 |
28. | Iowa State U. | 2,827 | 79 | 1,195 | 33 |
29. | U. of Arizona | 2,771 | 65 | 1,719 | 40 |
30. | U. of Iowa | 2,673 | 87 | 1,245 | 40 |
31. | Indiana U. at Bloomington | 2,663 | 55 | 1,666 | 34 |
32. | U. of Utah | 2,659 | 84 | 1,088 | 34 |
33. | U. of Missouri at Columbia | 2,610 | 74 | 1,226 | 35 |
34. | U. of Tennessee at Knoxville | 2,571 | 92 | 1,418 | 51 |
35. | U. of Colorado at Boulder | 2,569 | 78 | 1,364 | 41 |
36. | U. of Massachusetts at Amherst | 2,380 | 81 | 1,354 | 46 |
37. | U. of Connecticut | 2,317 | 86 | 1,467 | 54 |
38. | Texas Tech U. | 2,249 | 63 | 1,409 | 39 |
39. | Louisiana State U. at Baton Rouge | 2,194 | 70 | 882 | 28 |
40. | U. of Houston | 2,184 | 51 | 1,464 | 34 |
41. | U. of Nebraska at Lincoln | 2,061 | 82 | 977 | 39 |
42. | U. of South Florida | 2,048 | 49 | 1,463 | 35 |
43. | U. of Kansas | 2,030 | 74 | 1,127 | 41 |
44. | U. of California at San Francisco | 2,012 | 648 | 24 | 8 |
45. | U. of Pittsburgh main campus | 1,978 | 69 | 1,107 | 39 |
46. | Auburn U. | 1,977 | 72 | 826 | 30 |
47. | U. of California at Santa Barbara | 1,907 | 81 | 1,271 | 54 |
48. | Clemson U. | 1,892 | 83 | 1,028 | 45 |
49. | Oregon State U. | 1,878 | 63 | 1,015 | 34 |
50. | U. of Kentucky | 1,853 | 62 | 1,097 | 37 |
| All 707 institutions in category | 291,509 | 35 | 151,272 | 18 |
4-year private nonprofit institutions
1. | Johns Hopkins U. | 3,550 | 156 | 562 | 25 |
2. | Stanford U. | 3,360 | 198 | 1,107 | 65 |
3. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 3,299 | 291 | 677 | 60 |
4. | Yale U. | 2,882 | 233 | 1,547 | 125 |
5. | Columbia U. | 2,728 | 97 | 1,746 | 62 |
6. | Boston U. | 2,585 | 80 | 1,076 | 33 |
7. | Carnegie Mellon U. | 2,563 | 198 | - | - |
8. | Cornell U. | 2,531 | 116 | 1,522 | 69 |
9. | Harvard U. | 2,171 | 73 | 1,249 | 42 |
10. | U. of Southern California | 1,988 | 46 | 767 | 18 |
11. | Northwestern U. | 1,612 | 74 | 779 | 36 |
12. | Washington U. in St. Louis | 1,608 | 109 | 1,015 | 69 |
13. | Brigham Young U. | 1,538 | 46 | 609 | 18 |
14. | Duke U. | 1,491 | 93 | 655 | 41 |
15. | Vanderbilt U. | 1,408 | 112 | 509 | 41 |
16. | U. of Notre Dame | 1,330 | 108 | 523 | 43 |
17. | U. of Miami | 1,254 | 75 | 637 | 38 |
18. | Syracuse U. | 1,217 | 56 | 833 | 38 |
19. | Boston College | 1,123 | 78 | 475 | 33 |
20. | Baylor U. | 1,115 | 66 | 601 | 36 |
21. | Drexel U. | 1,079 | 42 | 484 | 19 |
22. | Princeton U. | 1,035 | 127 | 518 | 64 |
23. | Northeastern U. | 1,009 | 51 | 414 | 21 |
24. | U. of Rochester | 989 | 89 | 443 | 40 |
25. | Tufts U. | 983 | 88 | 368 | 33 |
26. | California Institute of Technology | 929 | 412 | 261 | 116 |
27. | Case Western Reserve U. | 898 | 79 | 348 | 31 |
28. | Howard U. | 828 | 83 | 332 | 33 |
29. | Brown U. | 825 | 87 | 437 | 46 |
30. | Emory U. | 774 | 56 | 200 | 15 |
31. | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 744 | 107 | 341 | 49 |
32. | Saint Louis U. | 727 | 43 | 727 | 43 |
33. | American U. | 726 | 55 | 718 | 54 |
34. | Tulane U. | 705 | 56 | 454 | 36 |
35. | George Washington U. | 655 | 25 | 504 | 19 |
36. | Georgetown U. | 603 | 33 | 328 | 18 |
37. | U. of Denver | 551 | 47 | 127 | 11 |
38. | Lehigh U. | 544 | 77 | 243 | 34 |
39. | Marquette U. | 485 | 42 | 199 | 17 |
40. | Duquesne U. | 476 | 51 | 227 | 24 |
41. | St. John’s U. (N.Y.) | 473 | 23 | 65 | 3 |
42. | U. of Chicago | 471 | 31 | 132 | 9 |
43. | Dartmouth College | 462 | 73 | 275 | 43 |
44. | Wake Forest U. | 460 | 59 | 203 | 26 |
45. | Stevens Institute of Technology | 459 | 72 | - | - |
46. | Rochester Institute of Technology | 447 | 27 | 153 | 9 |
47. | Illinois Institute of Technology | 440 | 56 | 440 | 56 |
47. | New York U. | 440 | 9 | - | - |
49. | Loyola U. Chicago | 435 | 26 | 435 | 26 |
50. | Catholic U. of America | 380 | 58 | 227 | 35 |
| All 1,606 institutions in category | 77,625 | 19 | 31,630 | 8 |
Note: Data represent graduate assistants at four-year public and private nonprofit degree-granting institutions in the United States that have 15 or more employees and that are eligible to participate in Title IV federal financial-aid programs. The ratio of graduate assistants per 1,000 students was calculated based on the enrollment all students — both full-time and part-time, degree-or-certificate-seeking and non-degree-seeking, undergraduate and graduate — in the fall of 2015. In addition to teaching and research, graduate assistants’ assignments included work in business and financial operations; community service, legal, arts, and media; computer engineering and science; health care and technology; library and instructional support; and management. Institutions are ranked by total number of graduate assistants. Tied institutions are listed alphabetically. Four-year for-profit institutions, which have relatively few graduate assistants, were excluded.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data