Graduate Assistant Stipends

Graduate Assistant Stipends – Biweekly Pay

This is intended to provide a brief summary of the payment process for graduate assistants, professorial assistants, and undergraduate assistants.

For information related to the hiring process, stipend ranges, graduate assistant handbook, and the Graduate Employees Union (GEU), please refer to the MSU Human Resources web page at www.hr.msu.edu/hiring/studentemployment/gradasst

Graduate assistant appointments are related to the academic semester of enrollment. The academic semesters are defined as follows:

Fall: August 16 – December 31
Spring: January 1 – May 15
Summer: May 16 – August 15

Graduate assistants are paid their stipend amount on a bi-weekly basis according to MSU’s established payroll schedules. Payroll schedules may be viewed here

The stipend amount represents payment for a full two-week period. The first and last paycheck of each semester may vary, based upon when the employment period begins and ends within the established pay period.

Stated otherwise, the first and last paychecks for a semester may be less than the full biweekly stipend amount since the employment period does not cover the entire two-week pay period.