AACBE Services

Members of AACBE are generally well-satisfied with the services offered by the organization, and 60 percent of them feel that the value of their membership has increased over the past two years, according to the preliminary findings of a recent AACBE survey.

According to the AACBE survey findings, fifty four percent said that the value of AACBE accreditation services has increased in that period of time, and 72 percent say the value of knowledge services has risen. Members also give high marks to certain specific AACBE member services, calling themselves “highly satisfied” or “satisfied” with

• AACBE Magazine (94 percent)
• Online member directory (93 percent)
• Videos & illustrations (92 percent)
• Affinity groups (81 percent)
• Jobs program (68 percent)

Faculty Evaluations

One of the biggest problems facing business school administrators is how to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of their professors. The problem is compounded because it can be difficult to know how to weigh various sources of data—including student evaluations, peer evaluations, and teaching portfolios. Since teaching evaluations often are used to determine whether a professor deserves promotion or tenure, it is critical that administrators carefully and fairly interpret all the data available to them.

A recent survey of AACBE members was designed to determine what components most deans and department heads believe should be considered in faculty evaluations. A rapid response from many members indicated that the survey indeed hit a nerve with deans and administrators. Findings here are based on 501 completed surveys.

In general, deans and administrators tend to look most closely at a professor’s depth of knowledge, student evaluations, technical ability, and teaching skill when evaluating teaching effectiveness. The survey suggests that:

·         The single most important element in faculty effectiveness is the professor’s current knowledge of the field. Of all respondents, 61 percent found this to be extremely important; 33.8 found it somewhat important.

·         Stakeholder feedback is also crucial—when it comes from students. Of the 20 items listed in this category, student evaluation scores and student written comments ranked as the most important elements.

·         Peer evaluations are more important than a dean’s evaluation, but less important than the chair’s evaluation.

·         According to the majority of respondents, evaluative classroom visits by administrators or faculty are only some-what important or not important at all

·         Intellectual contributions are not valued as highly as many people think. In fact, survey respondents ranked them seventh in importance, behind being current in the field, student evaluation scores, student written comments, chair’s evaluation, teaching awards, and peer evaluations.

·         The teaching portfolio—though gaining popularity in recent years—is not the best measure of teaching effectiveness. Just over a quarter of respondents called it extremely important; half said it is somewhat important.

·         Administrators do not appear to be especially concerned about class enrolments, grade distribution, or drop rates. Only 5.2 percent of those who responded think the drop rate of a class is an extremely important factor in determining teaching effectiveness.

·         It pays to be tech-savvy. Respondents rated a professor’s use of technology as a more important factor than colleagues’ opinions, grade distribution, course notebooks, course level, course type, class enrolment, and drop rate. About 56 percent believe that the use of technology is somewhat important; 9.5 percent believe that it is extremely important.

·         Classroom teaching is the most important element of overall annual faculty performance, rated as extremely important by 94.6 percent of the respondents. It outranks intellectual contributions, which is considered extremely important by just 73 percent of respondents.

·         Within student evaluations, professors’ preparation and communication skills are the most important aspects of their teaching.

·         Respondents believe that, in comparing the mean scores from student evaluations, the department mean should carry the most weight, followed by the discipline mean. They consider the college mean and university mean far less important.

Changing Landscape of Accreditation for Business Schools

Recently, AACBE had a meeting among its commission members and accredited business schools in which changes in accreditation processes and standards were discussed.  The commission members were encouraged to review the standards and make suggestions for improvements. 

The new accreditation standards will run for testing purposes for a year and will be finalized in the annual meeting.  During the meeting, the president of the AACBE said that the commission pursued three goals: revising reaccreditation, considering the accreditation unit, and revising the accreditation standards.

• Reaccreditation:

The first thing AACBE did was to change the entire reaccreditation process to what they now call maintenance of accreditation. Twenty schools went through the accreditation review under this experimental system and all of them reacted positively to the experience. The business schools that participated in the experimental review process, questionnaires were sent to the dean, the chair of the review committee, the president, and the provost, asking them to evaluate the new system. Responses were uniformly favorable as far as support for the process. An additional 15 schools are scheduled to undergo the maintenance of accreditation process and many more schools have volunteered to be reviewed under the new guidelines.  

• Accreditation Unit:

After much consideration, it was decided that the entire business institution will be accredited. The institution can ask that certain programs be excluded for various reasons, and the AACBE commission members will decide what to allow. This decision has received a lot of positive reaction because it allows the institution some discretion over what is included and what isn’t. The schools up for re view will be asked to provide a list of exclusions up to two years before the review takes place, which will ensure that both the school and the business accreditation committee know exactly what is being considered in the accreditation review.  

• Accreditation Standards:

Although still undergoing revision, the accreditation standards are about 90 percent complete. Some of the most significant changes involved making the standards less U.S.-centric. This required changing some of the measurement concepts that are specific to U.S. schools, as well as some of the language. “Words like ‘diversity,’ ‘full-time equivalents,’ ‘tenure’ and ‘tenure track’ were modified for the global school setting. The AACBE also moved away from describing what specific courses should be in the curriculum to focusing on learning outcomes.

While the change in standards will allow schools more flexibility in meeting certain requirements, some members have expressed concern that the new standards might lack some quantitative preciseness.

The committee plans to have the standards finalized and ready for the AACBE’s annual meeting. By that time, the standards will have been reviewed by many different groups, the unit will have been pretty well established, and the maintenance of the accreditation process will have been through much experimental use. There’s a lot of thoughtful discussion going on, but in most cases members have made strong comments of support.

 

Technological Ethics

In a recent AACBE’s annual meeting, the AACBE accredited member institutes discussed that today’s business leaders need to find their moral compasses and realize that new technology brings accompanying ethical challenges.

It was discussed that the higher education and technology need to be blended together to achieve maximum results for AACBE accredited member institutes. But at the same time we should be aware that the technology can also create as many problems as it solves and that many of the technological advances of recent years are fraught with enormous ethical and social implications.

During the meeting AACBE suggested that we need a value system, a moral compass, self-reliance, patience, passion for learning, and judgment beyond the technology component. Those are things that don’t normally come with a technology degree and over the past few years they haven’t necessarily been a part of a business degree, either. AACBE accredited member institutes need to rethink some of their fundamentals in the both areas.

If AACBE accredited member schools and businesses focus on values, morality and ethics, AACBE concluded, they will be able to re-establish the trust that is absolutely necessary for the kind of business world that we all want to see.

 

The Internet Entrepreneur

The 90s era saw the growth of personal computers, the Internet, and the spirit of entrepreneurship, paving way for the great dotcom revolution—which then became the great dotcom crash. Experts don’t think the virtual fallout had much lasting effect on entrepreneurship, however.

According to the experts at AACBE the dotcom idea was a failure because it lacked product value for its customer. Students were also sceptical of the dotcom model as they are taught product value and it’s a go/no go situation. If there isn’t sufficient product value, if you can’t make money on the idea, if you can’t identify a customer base that will buy it in excess of your cost, then you shouldn’t proceed. And the dotcom phenomenon was a deviation from that philosophy because none of those business models worked to make money. 

The academic experts of AACBE accredited institutes are always of the opinion that if you couldn’t make money off the enterprise, no matter how long you get funded for it, it will eventually fail. Students are taught that a sound business model should generate revenue and there should always be a positive cash flow. You have to have a return on investment, you have to produce something that has value. And the companies that do not understand the rigorous process of the entrepreneurship process fail. 

AACBE members foresee the future as to be skilled in whatever you are doing as internet companies will feature more serious entrepreneurial growth, and that will be good for the world and good for business schools.

 

Support Of Academic Journals In Finding Ph.D. Programs

AACBE advises students that in addition to examining an online university’s accreditation, exploring academic journals by discipline also can help narrow down a list of universities that likely have high-quality doctoral programs in your area of interest. For example, if you are interested in pursuing a PhD in management, look through top management journals. Take notes of article authors and the schools they are from. Then, explore their research backgrounds. Are these authors well-known in their fields? What kinds of topics have they researched? Are they recognized as specialists in any one area (such as organizational design, leadership, employee morale, etc.)? Are any of these specialized areas subjects that you are passionate about researching? 

Once you have a list of authors and schools, find out if the online university or online institution offers a PhD program and if the researcher mentors doctoral students. Your goal is to learn from the best in your field. The better your doctoral mentor, the better your research skills will be when you graduate.  

Here are a list of well-known academic journals to get you started:

• Accounting
• Accounting and Business Research
• Accounting Educators' Journal
• Journal of Accounting Research
• Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking
• Securities Regulation Law Journal

• Decision Sciences
• Decision Sciences Journal
• Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education

• Finance
• Journal of Finance
• Journal of Financial Economics
• Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking

• Management
• Academy of Management Journal
• Academy of Management Perspectives
• Academy of Management Review
• American Behavioral Scientist
• Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences
• Journal of International Management
• Journal of Operations Management
• Organization Science
• Management Science
• Multivariate Behavior Research
• Strategic Management Journal
• Strategic Organization

• Marketing
• Journal of Consumer Research
• Journal of Marketing
• Journal of Marketing Research
• Marketing Science

The Success Story of AT&T

Recently, a forum was organized by EY in which officials from AACBE also participated.

A keynote speaker at the conference was the CEO of AT&T — Randall L. Stephenson. During his presentation he discussed things about internet traffic rules. He also provided some interesting points on the boldness of strategy needed to stay in business in the long term. Some of the same principles also apply to the professionals who wish to build long and successful careers.

He asserted the importance of being bold enough to re-invent things that cannibalize existing, profitable products and services. AT&T has had to make some strategic bets to manage the demise of a technological era – bets that assured their ability to survive and thrive long term, despite cannibalizing the profitability of their core businesses.

He says that at the core of AT&T’s obsolescence survival story lies the fact that it is the first to make product trade-offs, improving its chance of survival. Today’s market, quickly displaces those who don’t rapidly adopt innovation. Think Blackberry. This process of managed obsolescence applies to your career and your future, as well.

Business careers are not a straight line path anymore. You have to anticipate some zig and some zag. You also have to anticipate you’ll need to make tough tradeoffs from time to time keep your job and get ahead.

What kind of trade-offs? Maybe you have to take a step back in title and responsibility to leap frog to more responsibility down the road. Or accept a lateral move to groom yourself for rapid acceleration a position or two in the future. Sometimes you even need to step back and think refresh your skill set. For business students he urges them to be proactive — before the time passes and see the handwriting on the wall. 

• Take stock of where you are. Ask trusted colleagues what they think you’re good at. What do they think your growth opportunities are? Where do they see you fitting in the organization? In the work landscape in general? Accept the input, good and bad. Inventory your skills and experiences. Identify the gaps and the holes.

 

• Commit to yourself that you will let go of the OLD professional you and open yourself up to the NEW. You need to find the mental resolve to move forward and embrace change in your professional life. This is the first step in the journey.

 

• Make your manager your ally. Have a frank discussion about your long term career goals. Ask your manager’s help in reaching your goals – even if it means a shift to a new department, or extra assignments you feel less than equipped to handle, or taking some of the drudge out of your manager’s day to day, or even taking time off to allow yourself some mental and emotional space.

 

• Proactively set out to build your skill set. Your goal is to strategically fill in skills gaps. Have management skills? Check! Have product expertise? Check! Have P&L responsibility? Check! Have international experience? No….then go get it – whatever “IT” is. And if you can’t get “IT” from your job, then seek to do it outside of the workplace through classes, volunteer work, study- options.

 

• Be open to opportunities. Don’t let that inside voice tell you “you can’t” or “it won’t work.” First and foremost, you need to be a believer in yourself and your capacity to evolve and stay in the game in one way or another. For the naysayers? Ignore them. They are not worth your time or mental energy.

 

Are Our Business Executives Good Leaders?

We all agree that all business executives are not good leaders. However, these days this topic is highly debated across the business schools all over the world. Employers wish to hire graduates who have leadership skills and so they are also complaining about this.  

In order to further understand and elaborate on this, AACBE conducted a study among its 2200 accredited schools and 67,000 students about how they view the role of the company in society and how their views are shaped by what they learn in business school.

The findings were: 

·         MBAs shift their priorities during the two years of the business school program, from “customer needs” and “product quality” to “shareholder value.”

·         MBAs believe that they can’t change company values. If they experience a values conflict, they are more likely to leave than try to change the organization.

·         MBAs are not sure what “social responsibility” is. Many think it’s an internal issue, and that it is the job of the corporation’s human resources department to help create a happier and more productive work force.

·         MBAs would like their business schools to show them the financial benefits of fulfilling social responsibility—as both an internal and external force. They also would like to see social responsibility incorporated into the core curriculum, rather than being taught as an elective on ethics or corporate philanthropy.  

This is the first time MBA student attitudes have been documented over the course of the MBA program. And the results tell us that MBA programs do indeed influence students’ attitudes toward business and society, and that business schools are not adequately preparing students to see the link between the two.

"Recent disasters have brought societal issues to the fore, making the training of future business leaders in these topics not only timely, but urgent,” says Nathan K. Hall, Program Director at AACBE said.

 

Innovating Business Education

Recently a meeting was held among the AACBE accredited member institutes, government leaders and corporate representatives to discuss how technology should drive innovation in the nation and international business schools.

Currently, the business schools of today are faced by the challenge of equipping schools and teachers with new equipment and instructional strategies, gauging the progress of new teaching approaches, and scaling up proven strategies.

This is also discussed in the book titled ‘Disrupting Class’ written by Clayton Christensen. The authors reached their conclusions not by studying schools, but rather by studying innovation in business. They stood outside the public education industry to examine its problems from a different perspective. The book is an excellent read that AACBE also suggest all its accredited member institutes to read. The book has conveyed five major messages:

• Few education reforms have addressed the root cause of students’ inability to learn. Most attempts have not been guided by an understanding of the root reasons for why the system functions as it does, or how to predictably introduce innovation into it.
• School reformers have repeatedly tried to confront the status quo head-on. The authors’ previous studies of innovation showed that direct attacks on existing systems do not lead to effective disruptive innovation. Instead, innovation must go around and underneath the system.
• We know that all children learn differently, but the way schooling is currently arranged discourages educating children in customized ways. We need a modular system.
• Emerging online user networks offer a model for circumventing the education system and creating a new, modular system that facilitates customization. Decentralized user networks democratize development and purchase decisions to the end users in the system—in this case students, parents, and teachers.
• To facilitate innovation administrators will have to use the tools of power and separation. Using these tools is easiest in the chartered and private school sectors.

Online universities and online courses are best suited to students need as they offer the most customized and focused student centric education and instruction. The book suggests that online institutes should designate one person hose job should be to implement online courses. He or she should not be the chief information officer or info technologies officer. She or he should report directly to the principal or district superintendent. She or he should not have responsibilities for the rest of instruction in the school, but instead should be free to take any steps necessary to import online courses to meet students’ needs.

AACBE accredited member institutes should also conduct a research on how different people learn, how to identify those differences, and how different students can best educate themselves and each other and then implement strategies to make the students successful.

Note for Teacher Training Colleges:

Future teachers should have skills to work one-on-one with different types of learners as they study in a student-centric way. Business schools must also train researchers to go beyond doing descriptive research that seeks average tendencies. Instead, they should study the anomalies and outliers, where the richest insight often is found. 

Note for Teachers and Parents:

When your school does not offer a course students need, seek them online and demand that their schools accept them for credit.

“Schooling can and should be an intrinsically motivating experience,” Christensen says. Why has this often not been the case? How to resolve these problems? Explaining why and how is the purpose of this book.

Tomorrow’s Business Schools

 

With the advent of new technology and infrastructure, times have changed. These changing times call for changing educational facilities and procedures. The days for big box educational infrastructure having carefully partitioned classrooms, hidden lounges, and enclosed hallways are over. 

The business education of today calls for teamwork and hands-on learning which requires educational institutions to build or modify their infrastructure. But amidst of all this the education providers should not forget the fact that in its entirety they must create an environment that suits its mission, expresses its personality and serves the needs of its students.

AACBE has identified a few important factors in the modern business schools infrastructure. These educational needs are in correlation with the social community. So to better inhabit and serve that world, modern business schools and AACBE accredited member institutes should be constructed with five important “C’s” in mind: collaboration, connectivity, comfort, convenience and most important, community.

Education in business schools is happening collectively as the world of internet and technologies has made us more interactive and collaborative society. AACBE suggests that the modern business school infrastructure calls for a user friendly space where team work and collaboration is focused upon. There should be open spaces such as executive suites and lounges breakout rooms, and places where groups of individuals can work together on projects to instil community and culture system. The business schools ideally should have collaborative work rooms, an auditorium, area for socializing and a cafeteria along with a wireless network throughout the school so to foster human interaction, recommends AACBE.

To create an ideal learning atmosphere, business schools can create a central courtyard or an atrium with open meeting areas and a vaulted, glass ceiling where people could talk, meet, or read; and study and exchange ideas. Since there would be students busy working or collaborating round the clock, this call the need for vending machines and kitchens.

To foster human interactivity, business schools can also offer more and more business programs by creating joint programs with other entities or integrating them with other entities courses. So there will be more faculty teaching outside the business school and more non- faculty teaching inside the school. This is where connectivity comes in and plays its role.

With the boom in business school education expected to continue, the changes in technology occurring at a rapid pace and business schools new emphasis on collaboration, AACBE believes that the online business schools design should be learning oriented and not teaching oriented. The modern business school should be designed for the needs of the present, but always with an eye on the future trends. It should be an embodiment of a new level of integration, representation of collective decision-making of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community and is connected.

Changing Landscape of Today’s Business Schools

All of us are affected by the global happenings and so do the business schools too. Despite the fact that they are thriving after the recession, they are also influenced by numerous external factors. What factors are driving this change- AACBE conducted among its accredited member institutes deans a survey to know the same. 

 

The study found out that there are four top drivers: the emergence of new competitors, rapid changes in the economy, shifts in funding sources and changes in how business organizations function. Other factors were compliance and regulatory issues, privatization and venture capital, and intellectual property rights. However all these mentioned factors are external factors and are of less significance for the core operations of the business institution.

 

The researchers noted that most change drivers were independent, though a few clusters of interrelated factors did emerge. In one cluster, these interrelated change drivers were those that reflected a global, e-business, anytime, anywhere mindset: the global bazaar and the erosion of geo boundaries; the shifting of resources to e-learning; the possibility of conducting business activity anytime, anywhere; the increased need for speed; and exploding opportunities in e-business. In a second cluster, one that focused on core business changes, the combined drivers were: the rapid changes in the economy and changes in how business organizations function.

With the external factors brining about the changes, it calls for academic leaders to develop a number of skill sets to be successful. The required skill set according to the respondents of the survey included interpersonal, relationship-building, and influence skills essential for their success. In these skills are also independent and dependent: human resource and recruiting/staffing skills; negotiation and employment law skills; selling, marketing, and public relations skills; and problem finding/solving and decision-making skills; and as e-business and IT knowledge and understanding, and global business understanding respectively.

Business schools that are internationally reputed and possess international accreditations such as from AACBE, do not have to face the problem of emergence of competitors and financial endowments. However, they are faced by issues such as the doctoral faculty shortage; the global bazaar and erosion of geo boundaries; intellectual property rights; compliance and regulatory issues; privatization and venture capital; exploding opportunities in e-business; and rapid changes in the economy. For these same schools, the following skill sets were also more important: strategic planning and forecasting skills; human resource and recruiting/staffing skills; selling, marketing, and public relations skills problem-solving and decision-making skills; and fund-raising and grant-getting skills.

As an ending note, the AACBE found out that for business institutes and students to be successful in todays world, they need to develop skills of relationship-building, managing change, building effective teams, planning and forecasting, defining and communicating a vision, and fund raising.

Global Acceptability of Online Business Education

Online education is on a rise and is replacing on-campus education so rapidly that the AACBE predicts deserted traditional universities around the world in the next three decades. As a result, many educational universities are switching their traditional educational programs to online mode. It is predicted that by 2020 more than 100 million Americans alone will be taking up adult education programs, combining online learning with short on-campus courses.

Business education has been transformed by interactive information technology at present and in the future is bound to transform through the Internet and two-way satellite communications. The experts at AACBE forsee that within the next few years, students across the world will have instant access to the world's best teachers, through an extensive variety of sources: the Internet, satellite, digital video discs, two-way conferencing, CD-ROMs and multimedia interactive study.

Online business education is booming owing to the availability of the information technologies that make it all possible. As high-speed Internet access becomes available in more and more homes, learning from the web becomes easier. Plus, you can learn at your own pace, which is extremely helpful for people with families. It makes it so much easier to balance work life, home life, and your education.

Secondly, online business education is pursued because of the fact that it allows you to further your career options while continuing full-time employment. Due to the recession, the corporate world has become increasingly competitive and people have to live up to the employers expectations. This is where online business courses are becoming popular. Such online education programs can also be tailored to fit individual needs, whether you need an associate degree or an MBA.

Beyond the benefit of convenience, affordability and a wider choice of courses, the appeal of online business education vastly include a changing culture among students, who grew up with computers.

Business Students Study Trends

Owing to the financial recession, unemployment is on the rise and employers are concerned about worker skills. For students this is an ideal opportunity to return to higher education whether online or a physical university.

According to a research conducted by AACBE, students enrolling in two-year colleges offering business and management courses are the fastest growing higher education population, and growth of enrollment in higher education for people over 25 is expected to outpace that of younger students through 2016.

With these facts and new adult students pouring in, new challenges have risen for institutional study programs and personnel. Many adult students take distance courses. Institutes need to offer business and management course online. Also because online learning often lacks direct contact with faculty and staff on campus, supporting these students can be challenging. In-house systems should provide a controlled environment and can engage students directly. In the world of the online adult learner, this is rarely the case.

AACBE accredited member institutes have all the benefits and strategies that are needed by an online student. They have made their shift to online learning that impacts students, instructors, and the information professionals who support them. Also the instructors at AACBE accredited institutes have no difficulty in developing and managing online courses. Online students also often have little experience working online and need help navigating content and performing learning tasks. So they have facilities for that too.

Some instructors are online innovators, and some adult students are Internet savvy. This can be a blessing and curse for technologists. Courses using wikis, blogs, and Google Docs provide adult students the opportunity to learn in real-life contexts using a variety of work-related tools and skills. But the experience can come at the cost of lost structure and control.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Assistantships are meant for students who are concerned about paying their tuition fees and getting good jobs.

According to CNN Money, the average tuition fees at public universities has increased by 8.3%, and that too for undergraduates only. So, to avoid excess debt, students of AACBE accredited institutes can pursue a graduate teaching assistantship or TA position at their institutes. If cost or debt is not a concern for you, an assistantship is still something worth exploring, as it can increase your attractiveness to potential employers. Either way, a teaching assistantship is a great employment option for full-time graduate students.

Job Description of Graduate Teaching Assistant (TA)

A TA is usually required to work 10 to 20 hours per week. These hours not only include teaching in a classroom but also grading papers and assignments. They also get an opportunity to create syllabus, teaching materials and set achievement standards for students. As a result, students start looking to their TA for guidance and answers to questions that they may not feel comfortable asking their professor.

Financial Rewards

A TA's compensation may include a stipend or hourly pay. The stipend or hourly wage may not be a large amount, however it surely helps. The largest contribution stemming from an assistantship is tuition reimbursement or coverage at your AACBE accredited institution. This automatically solves the debt problem after graduation.

Professional Experience

Experience gained from an assistantship is immeasurable. The more a TA puts into the job, the more he or she gets out of it. The opportunity to network with your professors, guest speakers or anyone else for that matter is immense. The practice speaking in front of large groups is a vital skill for today’s workplace. A TA also gains experience in a management role, something that many young professionals wait years to learn. There also are many practical benefits of becoming a TA outside of teaching. Assistants may see an improvement in their organizational skills, presenting styles, and planning capabilities. Depending on the course taught, a TA also will have opportunities to expand his or her knowledge of course topics through research and working directly with faculty experts.

How to Apply?

It is important to understand that every university, department, and school operates differently. Required qualifications and tuition reimbursement policies among programs may not be the same, however; it is important to keep those items in mind when looking for the right opening. In addition to initial qualifications for a TA position, maintenance of certain qualifications throughout the assistantship is required. For example, your number of enrolled hours is important. A TA has to be enrolled in a minimum number of graduate courses to continue as an assistant. As always, a solid GPA is vital as well. Without acceptable grades, the professor or adviser may not see the TA as an adequate representative of the university. The TA’s academic standing also may determine what opportunities he or she may qualify for. The assistant must be available on certain days for the obvious reason of teaching the course. Professors usually meet with their TA’s during the week to discuss lesson plans, assignments, and grading. Lastly, international students’ reimbursement and qualifications may differ from domestic students.

It is recommended to apply after acceptance into the program, but it is not necessary. Many universities post assistantships similar to other university job opportunity. Some schools have separate listings within each college or department. Speaking with a student adviser to explore the different openings and departmental needs also can be a great place to begin. Once you identify an assistantship, you may likely will be required to complete an application and provide recommendation letters.