ts1493

I guess what's "usual" is different for different fields, because in my field, it's very rare for a TA to be fully responsible for the course (we would likely call that person a "Teaching Fellow" rather than a "Teaching Assistant", too). 
My feeling about TAships is that they can take unlimited time. Therefore, it's super important to set expectations before you start. I always sit down with the professor teaching the course and talk about what is expected and compare it to how many hours I'm supposed to be working (based on whatever agreement your TA offer has). For example, at one school, a TAship is 9 hours per week per course. So we talk about things like: okay, the prof wants me to attend all the lectures (3 hours per week), hold one office hour per week, read the same assignments (1 hour per week, let's say, since I should be able to read faster than the students), and grade homework. We look at the time budget and find that I have about 4 hours per week to grade homework, and if there's like 40 students in the class, then I have 10 minutes per student. So, we agree on the amount of homework to be assigned so that I can finish grading in just 10 minutes per student. Maybe the instructor prefers to give long project-style homework that might take 30 minutes to grade, which means they can only assign one of these every 3 weeks instead of having weekly assignments. 
Some other instructors will give the TA the solution to the problem sets/homework, but others will require the TA to solve them on their own first. So, this must be added to the time budget too. And sometimes instructors want TAs to create the homework themselves so that takes up time as well!
And this discussion is not necessarily all one-sided (although since they are your boss, it could certainly be that way). For me, I'm lucky that when I want to do something in particular, my TA boss has always welcomed it. For example, in recent years, I wanted to teach one week's worth of lectures, which would require more hours of TA work in order to prep. So, we shifted my other responsibilities around so that I spent less time grading and more time prepping for the lectures. I wouldn't expect this of course, but an example of how discussions of expectations will benefit everyone.
Finally, an important thing to remember is to make sure you are defining "success" as something achievable. It is impossible for a TA to please everyone. I only have about 5-10 minutes (depending on the assignment and the class) to grade the weekly homework. Sometimes I wish I could give a lot more feedback to the students, but if I spend more time on my TA work, I'm neglecting other aspects of my life (research, my own classes, my family, my hobbies etc.). I've stopped measuring my "success" in TA work as "how much stuff got done", but instead, "how effective are my use of the resources I have". I strive to spend my 9 hours per week to improve my students' learning as best as I can!

Thank you all so much for this. I am 7 months pregnant and I also have an 11 year old. I just applied to 7 PhD programs and I'm nervous about taking on too much! I have worked full time throughout my MA program, so the thought of quitting my job to focus on school full time for a PhD sounds pretty nice! But, add a new baby and husband to the mix and it could be a disaster. @stillconfused I totally know how you feel! After I turned in all of my apps, I regretted applying. I secretly hoped I wouldn't get in anywhere. Then I got an email saying I'm a finalist for one program and I'm flying out for an interview next week. This little confidence booster has completely reinvigorated my excitement. I am still scared and overwhelmed at the prospect, but I think its important to show our families that we are more than just "mommy" or "babe." We should also allow ourselves time and energy to develop as individuals, experts, scholars, etc.  Yes, it will be hard work and lots of stress for a few years but I have to believe it will be worth it! Not sure about other disciplines, but I have had SO many profs who are not married and never had children. They are definitely brilliant people, but lacked certain social qualities and life experiences that I think make for outstanding professors and professionals. And if we end up with a coveted tenure-track teaching position, imagine having summers and holidays off to spend with your family! 

I can't believe it ya'll -- dreams actually come true!!! BROWN admitted!

I think it depends on your career goals. If you want to become a TT professor at an R1, you want to go for the highest ranked program that you get into - for the most part. Placements are much, much higher at top 10 (some will extend this to 25, and some will bicker over rankings forever) programs.
(That said, I didn't apply for any top 10 schools, and I'd like to teach/do research at an R1, so don't mind me.)
 

You know, I thought the same thing.  I didn't take a sociology class in college and so have very little academic sociological experience.  But I guess I have some valuable work experience and a good fit, as I was still accepted to a pretty competitive program.  Congrats on your acceptances!  And thanks a lot for your thoughts.

I'm now ready for the decision. I bought champagne for good news, and chocolate Haagen-Dazs for bad. Bases covered.
 
 

I definitely understand the source of stress and anxiety in wanting to make a decision sooner rather than later. My spouse is not a student and moved with me to my graduate program and February was the most stressful month for both of us while we wait for decisions to come in. It's really tough not knowing where you would be, and especially for the non-student partner, as there were also worries about finding work etc.
But unfortunately, I don't think it's really possible to rush things at this time. In the above post, I gave some exceptions for some cases where I would check in, but they were all about grad school. I should have mentioned other considerations too---for example, I think it's okay to check in and ask about decision status if you are in a situation where e.g. your partner has a job offer in the same area as the first school that accepted you and that job offer has a strict deadline and you want to know if you still even have a chance at other places before making the decision etc.
Note: I'm not saying that I think you have a partner or anything---just wanted to give examples to demonstrate that it's okay, in my opinion, to have graduate programs worry about the other issues that come with grad students relocating. Academics are humans too, not just research machines I'm saying this because in some parts of academia, it seems like being a nomad and being willing to move at a moment's notice is considered a good thing (or even necessary) to succeed in academia and I want to minimize this type of thinking as much as possible. I want to normalize the fact that there are lots of non-academic reasons to choose a school
Edited to add: Also, my program will accept people for a fall start date but if someone is willing to pay you as an RA over the summer, you can start as early as you want---some people even start in May or June (usually people who are not coming directly from undergrad). Sometimes people who start this early even get a paper completed before the school year even begins.