Guimauvaise

I have to agree with everyone who has mentioned external hard drives or flash drives. I HIGHLY recommend both. If you get a TA position, and if your department is like mine, you will be required to keep copies of all of your students' papers for two years (in case someone decides to challenge a grade, or if there are plagiarism accusations). To put this into perspective, look at my first semester as a TA: I taught comp 1, which requires five essays, ranging in length from 2-3 to 5-6 pages. Each student should therefore have written a minimum of 15 pages worth of essays. Multiply that by about 40-45 students. Now multiply that by four (semesters). Total: 2400 pages that I'm required to keep track of at any given time. Digital copies are a life (and space) saver. Flash drives are also good for running portable apps (portableapps.com), like office software, .pdf readers, web browsers, etc. I also agree with the scanner idea, but, as others have already pointed out, you should wait to see if your department has one available for TA use. The English TAs at my school have their own computer/printer lab, with access to scanners, including a fancy one that automatically converts the scanned pages to a .pdf file, which is great for distributing digital handouts to students by email or through an online course manager. And you should definitely get chalk and dry erase markers if you're going to be a TA. I learned very quickly that you can't count on the classroom to have a supply of them; people either take them or other instructors "borrow" them because there weren't any in their rooms either. For the chalk, you should also consider getting a chalk holder...it will save your fingers (and your clothes) from getting dusty, and it also cuts down on broken chalk. Regardless, you should wait on the more "specialized" office supplies until you get to school. Your department may provide a lot of things for you. Incoming TAs in my dept. receive goodie bags filled with legal pads, pens, pencils, markers, chalk, staplers...all the basics that you could possibly need as a TA or student. Sometimes there are even flash drives or other more "techy" items in the bag.

I entered my undergrad thinking pre-optometry, but changed that to French lang./lit. on the day of matriculation. As a grad student, I went for an MFA in creative writing, focusing on poetry. The only experience I had with poetry, aside from reading it in French and English, was an introductory poetry class and a casual workshop offered at my undergrad. I was told upon enrolling that the English dept. might ask me to take courses to make up "deficiencies," but nothing ever came of that. Now I'm going to start a PhD in English lit. Obviously, there's a natural flow between the three degrees...all are lit-based. Still, it felt weird sitting in a poetry class as a first-year MFA -- hell, even a fourth-year MFA -- and the instructor and students started rattling off poems they had read that reminded them of something in the lecture, and I had never even heard of it. For that matter, there were poets/poems on my comp. that I had never seen before. Talk about disconcerting. I passed, of course, but I still felt awkward.

I just finished my MFA in Creative writing at the University of Arkansas, and will begin a PhD here this fall. The English dept. doesn't make distinctions between MA/PhD students as far as responsibilities go, but there are some variations in the stipend. MAs are paid less than PhDs by about $500 a year, but MFA students with 30+ credit hours (it's a four-year degree here) get PhD level pay. Otherwise, the benefits package is the same. As for coursework, there are other subtle differences. MFA students can apply to teach introductory creative writing courses, and PhD students can apply to teach their own "special topics" version of Comp 1 or 2 (for example, last spring, one of the courses somehow examined composition-related topics in the realm of video games. World of Warcraft was a primary source.). All TAs in the English dept. -- which includes creative writing, comp. lit., and English lit. -- teach two sections, unless they are a fourth-year MFA or PhD...those students only teach one section, allowing more thesis/dissertation time. I'm not sure what other depts. at my school do, but the English. dept. is by far the largest. We have nearly 100 TAs, and another 50 or so faculty/lecturers. Regardless, you should get a feel fairly quickly for how your dept. views its TAs. If there is a difference between MA/PhD students at your school, I'd imagine it will be a subtle one. Hope that helps.