The following study investigates students’ perceptions of the differences between traditional and nontraditional graduate teaching associates (GTAs) with a specific focus on how a GTAs status and socio-communicative style influences students’ perceptions of credibility, homophily, affect toward the course content, the instructor, and motivation to attend class. Participants for this study were gathered from a state university in southern California via the researcher’s professional network. Three hundred and forty seven students responded to an online questionnaire after being randomly assigned to read one of eight written descriptions of a GTA. Multivariate and univariate analyses of the data were analyzed, and results indicated statistically significant main and interaction effects between variables, with the caring dimension of credibility accounting for the largest percent of the variance. Interpretation of the results reveals that students do perceive distinct differences between traditional and nontraditional GTAs and their particular communicative style. The results also indicate that students generally perceive highly assertive, highly responsive traditional GTAs to be more caring and trustworthy, and highly assertive highly responsive nontraditional GTAs to be more competent. Both traditional and nontraditional GTAs perceived to have a competent communicative style are far more likely to increase student affect and motivation. Directions for future research and implications for GTA training are discussed.