Undergraduate and master’s students are invited to apply for course assistant (CA) student employment positions in Computer Science and Gateway Computing for courses they have already taken and received a high grade in. Depending on the course and position, assistants may be responsible for office hours, grading, helping in class, leading labs and/or holding review sessions. All CAs are required to have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0. You must have at least sophomore standing, and you may not assist in a course you will be taking. Lastly, please note that we will check to make sure applicants do not have any prior ethics violations before being considered for a position.

Lead CAs will be hired for special courses (Gateway Computing, Mathematical Foundations for Computer Science, etc.) to provide extra in-class and/or mentoring support to students. Strong master’s students and advanced undergraduates with significant experience may be hired as head CAs. Head CAs are required to have at least a 3.2 GPA and should be an upper-level or graduate student with prior CA experience.

View the CA policies and guidelines for Computer Science courses here.

PAYRATES for Fall 2026 & Spring 2027:

  • $17.50/hr — first-time CA doing a lower-level course
  • $18.50/hr — experienced CA doing a lower-level course, first-time CA doing an upper-level course, or experienced CA doing an upper-level course for the first time
  • $19.50/hr — experienced CA doing an upper-level course for at least the second time or lead CA
  • $20.50/hr — first-time head CA
  • $22.00/hr — experienced head CA

All CAs—including head CAs—must submit a weekly timesheet detailing hours worked and tasks completed. Regular CAs usually work 8–10 hours per week; lead CAs work about 10–12 hours per week; and head CAs average 15 hours a week. Students should expect this job to extend into reading period and exams as well.

This is a student employment position, so you must be eligible for student payroll in order to be hired. See here for a full set of eligibility requirements. New hires must also apply in SMILE for position #14452 (CS) or #15690 (Gateway).

We have a custom application system—thanks to Prof. Madooei and a student team—the CA Application Management System (CAAMS)! When you log into the system using the link below, you should update/complete your user profile. You can then submit an application for the current hiring cycle. This online form is the first step in our application process. It will be electronically submitted to the Department and/or Gateway admins and reviewed by appropriate instructors. Qualified new applicants may be interviewed by 1–2 people depending on course needs, and returning applicants may also need to meet with instructors if changing courses. For certain courses (Gateway, Intermediate Programming in particular) students will be asked to complete an additional schedule availability survey.

Interviews and hiring decisions are made on a rolling basis, mostly before the semester begins. Please do not apply until you have final grades for all courses to which you are applying OR only apply for courses that you have already completed, not ones currently in progress. You cannot edit a semester application once submitted.

CAAMS (CA Application Management System) Link

Fall 2026 is now open!