I have no information about her specific field, so what follows may not be as applicable but I'll try anyway. You're right, as a masters student, especially on

I have no information about her specific field, so what follows may not be as applicable but I'll try anyway. You're right, as a masters student, especially one not very interested in research, chance of her becoming a research assistant are low. Ph.D. students are also preferred for TA positions. On the other hand, depending on the school, she may be able to get other oncampus jobs that involve a tuition waiver. Through my first year at Georgia Tech, I worked as a programmer in a department and the position involved a tuition waiver and a stipend. As funds have run dry, this sort of thing has become harder to get but it's worth investigating. I had a friend whose job was to count the number of dead light bulbs in each building (she worked for Operations) and she got a tuition waiver for that! This sort of thing also varies heavily from school to school and you really won't find out much unless you talk to people on the ground in the exact same program as you. Finally google for merit based or application based scholarships from external institutions in her field. When my girlfriend went to gradschool I helped her apply for a ton of scholarships which were from institutions that had nothing to do with her school (eg Google's Anita Borg scholarship, one from the institute of information systems etc). Unfortunately they all had to do with her specialization (Information Systems / CS) so will not be of much help to your relative.