How much money do you make from graduate assistantships?
 

I know it varies. How much have you made? Enough to support yourself? Grocery money?

i made "enough" to share an apartment and pay the cell phone bill. luxuries like "groceries," "laundry facilities" or "gas money" were pilfered from my parents.

it was worth it though, i had better benefits as a GA than i did my first job out of grad school (health care / dental).

I didn't know about the benefits. I certainly need that, I've just been kicked off my folk's insurance because I turned a certain age. I'm looking into uni insurance, but I find that kind of expensive. And I was just going to settle for a regular internship. I definately will be more aggressive in finding a GA now.

It all depends on what your program is, and what your work entails. My second year in grad school, I was a GA for a lower-level grad class, and that paid half-tuition for the second semester and a small monthly stipend. I was also a Residential GA for that entire year--it provided me an apartment, insurance, meals in the dining hall, and a quarterly stipend.

If you're in a PhD program, your awards will probably cover tuition, insurance, and a stipend of about $17-18K a year, depending on where you live and if you're doing the sciences (whick pay more than the humanities).

Good luck. Because I'm pretty damned stingy, I was able to pocket most of my earnings, which allowed me to start the working world with a good cushion to buy all of the "starting off" stuff (work clothes, deposits, etc.) without accumulating any debt.

i think it also depends on what school you are attending (location). i found my stipend covered my rent (which included utilities) - which was good, so i only had to dip into my parents (and grandparents) pocket for food/gas :)

this assistantship also covered most of my tution as well

My Master's GA position paid full tuition (out-of-state, even) plus $1000 per month (during the academic year only). One of the conditions of accepting it, however, was that I was not allowed to get another job in addition to the GA position (again, academic year only). This is something you should be aware of. It's no good to get into a situation like this (like one of my classmates did) just to realize that you can't make it on $1000/mo, so you get a part time job just to lose the GA position.

While benefits weren't included in my GA position, I had the option of purchasing the univeristy's student insurance coverage. It was quite affordable, and provided decent coverage.