Undergraduate Teaching Assistants are current undergraduate students who assist in courses they've successfully completed at Mason. It is an enriching way to hone your skills, help others survive and thrive, and get paid a bit along the way. Our UTAs are a large part of our students' success in early courses. We welcome current undergraduate students to apply after completing CS courses here at Mason!

Note - starting with the Spring 2022 UTA Hiring cycle, we will modify the process to have students directly upload their application materials to a submission folder instead of emailing documents. If you don't follow the application instructions, we likely will not see it for consideration.

Applications are closed for now, but eventually Spring 2025 applications will open up. (Separate links below)

Application form: download UTA Application here (up to date for Summer and Fall 2024; don't use old versions please)

File Upload Locations:

  • Be sure to submit them to the correct semester, including the most recent grades:
    • Fall 2024 applications are closed. (must include Spring 2024 grades)
    • (Spring 2025 applications - not yet accepted; must include Fall 2024 grades).
  • returning UTAs - please don't use old versions of the form. The first cell has a version number/semester written in it to help you figure out if you need to transfer information over or not.
  • see detailed instructions below.

Applications by the deadlines are considered "on time" and will receive equal priority; later applications are absolutely encouraged but will have less priority the later they are submitted.

  • Fall applications: due August 1st
  • Spring applications: due January 1st
  • Summer applications: due May 15th (or Spring degree conferral date, whichever is later). note: summer appointments are far less common. There is also a strong preference for returning UTAs and those who have worked with the course before.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Undergraduate teaching assistants assist other students in classes they've already taken.

We need UTAs for several very different classes, and so we are interested in candidates with any one or more of the following skills: strong English writing; strong presentation capability; strong coding skills; expertise in Python, Java, or C; expertise in hardware architectures or systems coding. UTAs do not need to be CS majors.

The UTA position is an hourly wages job that is meant to work with and around your school schedule. You may be able to work as few as a couple of hours per week or as many as 15, depending upon your experience and what is needed for the class(es) you assist with. Some duties can be done at home, and so the hours are often highly flexible.

UTAs are hired (or rehired) each semester. Typically, there are more new hires in the Fall than in the Spring. Successful UTAs are given slight preference over new candidates.

 

Application Requirements

The Computer Science Department invites students of our courses to apply to be Undergraduate Teaching Assistants. Successful applicants will have these specific characteristics:

  • have earned good grades in the courses they want to assist (generally, A grades earned at GMU for those courses)
  • have a good GPA (3.0 or higher both overall and in CS courses)
  • have good communication skills and can act professionally/reliably
  • are motivated to assist others and help them learn

First-time applicants need a recommendation by a CS faculty member (get their permission first!). Returning applicants do not need a recommendation.

In order to apply:

  • First-time applicants only - find a CS faculty member who is willing to separately send a letter of recommendation on your behalf.
  • Fill out the uta_application.xlsx form linked above, and rename it "Lastname_Firstname_application.xlsx"
  • Include an unofficial transcript (as a pdf) that includes all of your grades on it (wait until the previous semester's grades have posted), naming the file "Lastname_Firstname_transcript.pdf". You can get this on PatriotWeb.
  • upload both to the semester-specific folder at the top of this page.

Please note that you must have completed at least one semester at GMU to be considered for an undergraduate teaching assistantship.