TAing during grad school

[polarbearscafe]

I've received an offer for a clinical PhD program where I will be required to be on a teaching assistantship for at least 4 years (our lab never had RAs and I cannot apply for external funding). While on this assistantship, I expect to work for approximately 10 hours per week. I understand that the workload will depend on whether the course has a lab, the professor I TA for and whether it is exam season.

I am interested in pursuing academia and I am seeking advice on how TAing will affect my research, grades, practicum and life during grad school.

Thank you so much in advance for your comments!

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[SLB-CO]

10 hours/week is a bargain! Go for it if that is all what is required to get full funding. In my program TAs are expected to work 20 hours/week. I TA'd my first two years - was a great experience (though time-consuming) before taking an RA and it helped me in my abilities to teach now, and made me competitive for the fellowship I currently have. Yes, if you're wanting to publish and be very active in your lab, timing is always a struggle, but that can even be true of an RA if your PI isn't keen on you using lab hours to work on papers. To make your time most meaningful, see if you can TA for courses you care a lot about and/or allow you to teach a lab section (i.e., not just grading or doing busy work). Grad school is all about balance. Congrats on your offer!

 

[deleted343839]

I was a TA 10 hrs/week for several years during grad school, but most weeks it didn't take a full 10 hours. I attended each class meeting, kept office hours, prepared course assignments/reading, graded (and often wrote portions of) exams, and held special study sessions. I often had a chance to give a guest lecture during the semester. Once I had a couple of years of experience under my belt my assignments became more interesting (eg, I independently led a lab section of introductory stats and I assisted with a project-based research course for honors students). All of it was good experience.

How will being a TA affect your life in grad school? Mainly, it's one more thing to fit in, so you'll have that much more pressure to be efficient and manage your time well. The work itself isn't difficult. You will get some exposure to the realities of teaching college students, which is occasionally stressful/annoying but will come in handy when you teach your own courses eventually. I agree that the challenge is doing your best to balance multiple roles and demands - the blessing and the curse of academia.

 

[MCParent]

I am interested in pursuing academia and I am seeking advice on how TAing will affect my research, grades, practicum and life during grad school.

It shouldn't suck up your time. It might be as little as holding office hours no one comes to and hauling the scantrons over to the scanning center, depending on the course. I tell my grad TAs they better NOT show up to every class, because they have their research stuff to do

Most faculty jobs require a "teaching statement" as part of the app package. So, it would be nice to be able to say more than what you want to hypothetically teach.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Agreed with everything above. Our TAing commitment was 20 hours/week, but as with MamaPhD, it hardly ever reached that. It primarily consisted, in my case, of office hours, grading (and occasionally assisting in creating/proofing) tests and other assignments, entering grades into the system, fielding emails, and delivering a lecture or two. The responsibilities for those grad students TAing lab sections were generally higher, and included leading the lab section lectures. I opted to instead just teach my own course to gain this experience.

And I'll second with MCParent has said. Academic jobs will require a teaching statement (or an entire teaching portfolio), so this type of experience will help you develop more-informed responses. If you have the option to teach your own course, I'd strongly recommend it (others who've actually gone the academic route can correct me on that, though). If not, you could see if you can at least TA for a course with a greater actual teaching responsibility...ideally perhaps later in grad school when your own course load is lighter.

 

[WisNeuro]

I was also a 20/hr week TA, although that fluctuated quite a bit. If it was for a class I taught before, the workload went WAY down. I don't see the TAing affecting your grad school life any more than the other umpteen responsibilities. You find a way. Just don't expect regular 40 hour weeks. But that would be the case TA or not.

 

[123EW]

I was a TA 10 hours per week for the first few semesters. It helped me gain some good teaching skills on top of being a relatively easy job. It was more of a benign hassle than anything else, but a paid hassle, so worth it in the end.