Stipends and Work Commitment

[JordanJames]

I was wondering how much, on average, schools require you to work for your stipend. I remember seeing that a lot of schools require about 15 hours of work/week. My funding package requires 20 hours of work a week and I wanted to know if this is within a standard deviation of the norm. Also, for those of you who are in PhD programs, how much TA/RA work do you really end up doing? Are these hourly requirements just formalities where you mark down that you worked 15 or 20 hours but really worked much more?

[bgk]

What's your program? Even within my department the workload for a TA can vary from just a few hours a week, writing up solution sets, to maybe 10 or 15 hours, writing solutions, grading homework and taking sections/recitations. It depends on the class and professor!

[JordanJames]

Political Science. The contract says that I commit to working 20 hours per week.

[Minnesotan]

If you're unionized, there is the potential for working with total slackers, who do precisely what is required of them and no more. If I stopped working at the time allotted for some of my duties, my students would not learn as much, and that's unacceptable to me.

On the other hand, you have to get your own work done. If your supervisor is abusing your good work ethic, then you need to speak up.

I think the real issue comes with grading papers (in the humanities/arts/ss). You could spend years marking grammar, giving advice, helping them focus their papers, but you know what? Only 3 students per class of 25 are going to read your comments! You often have to rush yourself, if you ever want to get any thesis/dissertation work done.

[rising_star]

Committing to 20 hours often doesn't mean actually working 20 hours. Esp if you're grading papers and stuff for someone else's class. There are busy times and slow times and I think the idea is that on average you will do 20 hours...

[nowikissyou]

I've just been accepted and offered a stipend + tuition remission for 20h/week of TA work (first year). While I'm yet pondering on it (and waiting for a response from another university) I talked to some persons already enrolled in that same university and they say that 20h is "doable" but quite harsh and you need nerves of steel not to breakdown right away. On the other hand, it's not like there is *ANY* alternative (international student here - I can't get a job due to visa issues), so I may just have to suck it up.

TA in this context includes grading hw and exams, preparing and administering (sp?) lab classes and having office hours to answer students questions/doubts.

As a side note, I've already spent a semester at that university (study abroad program) and lived with persons who were beginning their PhDs at the time (Engineering), thus being in the same situation I will be if I accept the offer - and let me tell you they came to the same conclusion already presented on this thread: don't bother correcting the assignments too thoroughly; students will ignore comments and may even (ab)use eventual nitpicking on your end and report you to the supervising teacher (true story!).

Bottom-line: be fair, be fast!