Funding and Employment for Current Students

Welcome, Brennies! 

Please use this as your guide for funding and employment resources. As always, Bren School staff are here to help if you have any questions along the way (academics@bren.ucsb.edu). 

Quick Facts:

• The cost of a graduate education at UCSB is significantly less than at most other well-respected universities, making the Bren School a particularly cost-effective choice among environmental science and management programs.
• UCSB's Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships provides work-study and loans, offering up to $45,000 a year to CA residents and up to $65,000 a year to out-of-state students.
• For domestic non-residents from other U.S. states, establishing California residency after your first year is easy, resulting in significantly reduced tuition costs in your second year.
• On average over the last several years, over 60% of MESM students secured academic student employment for at least one quarter which paid a salary, regular tuition, and health insurance for the quarter they were employed. (Tuition remission for Academic Student Employment does not cover Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition (NRST) or Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST).
• In any given academic year, Bren students secure over 120+  academic employment positions, primarily TA positions, in over 20 campus departments, including Earth Science, Environmental Studies, Economics, Physics, Women’s Studies, and Anthropology, among others.

On-Campus Employment Opportunities

Student Assistant Positions
Most staff units within the Bren School hire MESM students as Student Assistants. Often these jobs do not directly relate to the students' academic or professional interests, but their pay, flexible hours, and convenient location make them of interest to students. Staff units that regularly hire student assistants include Career Development & Alumni Relations; Student Affairs & Admissions; Events; Facilities Maintenance; and Computing. Staff units circulate announcements advertising opportunities throughout the year to cohort listservs as they identify hiring needs, though most prefer to hire Student Assistants in Fall Quarter. You are automatically signed up to receive these announcements. 

Research Assistant Positions
Research Assistant positions can be arranged directly with the faculty member who needs a student to assist with research. If you are interested in a research position, then you should contact the professor who is doing research of interest to you to inquire whether any positions are available for next year. 

Alternatively, faculty members will circulate temporary Research Assistant positions among our MESM cohorts soliciting help on short-term projects or proposals. Many announcements of this type are distributed throughout the year, usually by the Bren School Career Development team.

Research Assistant (RA) positions are different from Graduate Student Research (GSR) positions. The RA position is typically paid an hourly rate in exchange for assisting faculty in their research. GSR positions are usually held by PhD students doing research in their faculty advisor's lab, for which they receive a salary and tuition remission. On occasion, MESM students are hired as a GSR, usually in the second year. If you are hired by a faculty member to assist in research, it is important to be clear about their (and your) expectations for compensation.

Readers
A Reader appointment is for a student to serve as a "course assistant," which will normally include grading of student papers and final examinations. These are good opportunities for students who do not want to commit to a TA or a GSR position but who still want to work on campus. More details can be found on the UCSB Graduate Division’s website.

Teaching Assistant (TA) Positions

Overview and Benefits
TA positions are a great way for students to gain teaching experience while offsetting costs of school. In any given academic year, MESM students obtain 120+ TA appointments in over 20 different departments on campus. That means over 60% of MESM students are employed as a TA during at least one quarter in a typical academic year. 

If you are employed as a TA at 25-50% time (10-20 hours per week, respectively), you receive a salary and payment of tuition and health insurance for the quarter(s) you are employed (see the Quarterly Fee & Fee Remission Schedule). TA positions do not cover campus fees,  Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST), or Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition (NRST). For more information, please visit the UCSB Graduate Division website's Academic Appointments section.

Any student who has secured a TA position for any department on campus is required to attend a mandatory TA Orientation. Any student who secures a TA position at a later point in the school year may schedule a make-up orientation with Lisa Berry (lisa@id.ucsb.edu; 805-893-8395) at UCSB Instructional Development. All TA's are also required to complete Sexual Harassment Prevention training and in many instances must complete additional trainings specific to the department. For example, MCDB and EEMB require students to complete Lab Safety Training and to enroll in a special course: MCSB/EEMB 502, to be eligible for their positions. It is the student's responsibility to ensure they have completed the proper training. Before accepting a position, please make sure you know what training, weekly meetings or other commitments you are responsible for your position and ensure they do not conflict with your course schedule. It is not acceptable to miss class on a regular basis for TA duties. 

How to find a TA position
At UC Santa Barbara, students are eligible to TA for the level of education they have completed. The Bren School does not offer undergraduate classes, so we cannot hire MESM students to TA Bren classes. Bren staff distribute any advertisements received from departments via email to incoming students; however, students who wish to secure TA positions should directly contact UCSB departments with undergraduate programs that employ TA's. All UCSB departments have a different process and timeline for recruiting TAs. TA selection for Fall Quarter typically starts in Spring Quarter and continues throughout the summer up until just before the start of the school year. 

Subscribe to the UCSB Graduate Division's GradTech Forum located on Google Groups. The purpose of this forum is to connect Graduate Students seeking Student Academic Employment with departments in need of additional support. Please feel free to contact the Graduate Division directly at financial@graddiv.ucsb.edu if you have any questions.

Who to Contact
Students must reach out to the graduate program assistants in the UCSB undergraduate or graduate departments they’d like to work for. Alternatively, you could reach out to the faculty member who is teaching the course you’d like to assist. 
 
Many Bren MESM students work as TAs in the Environmental Studies (ES) department; however, MESM students have worked in nearly every department on campus. Choosing a department to work for highly depends on your academic background and interests. To apply to the Environmental Studies department, students must complete the Environmental Studies Teaching Assistant Application. Other common departments for MESM students are Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology (EEMB) and Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB). All other department contact information and annual updates to posted positions can be found on the UCSB Academic Personnel’s Graduate Student Academic Appointments page (click ASE Open Positions). 
 
Important Things to Consider
When you apply for Teaching Assistant positions, it is important to remember you represent the Bren School- professional courtesy applies. Most departments have obligations to fund their graduate students first and then look to hire from outside departments. You may not hear from them right away, and it is not unusual for Bren students to get hired in the weeks right before the start of the quarter. They receive high volumes of applications from students and expect you to notify them if you are no longer available (i.e. have accepted another position) and, most importantly, to follow through with any acceptance of employment.

Hiring departments contact the Bren School to ensure students are eligible for employment and in good academic standing. It is Bren policy to contact any student enrolled in more than 20 units to meet with the academics team to discuss workload management and ensure they can feasibly complete both their academic and employment responsibilities.

Additionally, check to make sure that your schedule of classes enables you to TA for the section you are assigned and that you understand all of your required responsibilities (i.e. do you need to proctor exams, attend all lectures?) before you say yes. It is NOT acceptable to miss class so you can TA or to bail on a TA position at the last minute. This type of behavior may inhibit you or other Bren students from being hired in that department in the future. Please also note that the lunch hour (11am -12pm) Monday-Thursday have been left open for Bren-related events such as seminars, career and academic program workshops. Please do not schedule sections or other commitments over this time, as students are expected to attend these sessions.

Additional Resources

• Bren School TA Positions Information
• 2024-25 Bren TA Application
• TA Workshop Slides April 2024
• Process for TA Assignments at Bren