Teaching Assistant Work Load

[Dharma]

I will be a new doctoral student this fall. Initially, I thought I would be teaching two courses(6 hours); however, now I have been told I will be teaching 3 classes(10 hours total). My job is a total of 20 required hours. I will be expected to use the rest for office hours, grading, and maybe some student assistance. I am curious if this seem like overload. Most PhD students I know are teaching two courses maximum per semester. This 3 course load is considered normal in my program for all TAs. I am starting to freak out and now regretting my decision to attend here even though it was my top choice. Am I thinking irrationally or should I follow this feeling more. I dont want to give up before even attending, but I also dont want to start somewhere and then get burned out and have to leave or transfer somewhere else. I have already contacted the director of the program, and he mentioned this is normal. I feel like I will be putting in way more than 20 hours per week for work which seems my studies will be second and not a priority. Please help with sharing your experiences and thoughts.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I will be a new doctoral student this fall. Initially, I thought I would be teaching two courses(6 hours); however, now I have been told I will be teaching 3 classes(10 hours total). My job is a total of 20 required hours. I will be expected to use the rest for office hours, grading, and maybe some student assistance. I am curious if this seem like overload. Most PhD students I know are teaching two courses maximum per semester. This 3 course load is considered normal in my program for all TAs. I am starting to freak out and now regretting my decision to attend here even though it was my top choice. Am I thinking irrationally or should I follow this feeling more. I dont want to give up before even attending, but I also dont want to start somewhere and then get burned out and have to leave or transfer somewhere else. I have already contacted the director of the program, and he mentioned this is normal. I feel like I will be putting in way more than 20 hours per week for work which seems my studies will be second and not a priority. Please help with sharing your experiences and thoughts.

I had a 3-course teaching load last year, which is normal for my department. It is heavier than most schools, but definitely doable. (In fact, I'm curious if you will be attending the same school that I'm at, since I know the 3-course policy is in place in several departments.)

I have a feeling that, as state budget crises worsen, 3-course teaching loads will become more common.

eta: A lot depends on what class you are teaching, of course. I had 3 labs--which involved maybe 10-15 minutes prep work, plus grading time. I did not have to come up with a syllabus or class plan as all of this was provided by the department. Many TAs in my department had 3 sections of the same lab so even prep work was minimal.

[Infinite Monkeys]

I was told that, starting winter quarter, I'd be responsible for TA-ing three sections for one prof. I guess this is a normal load for the new folks, from what I've been told. Not taking our own classes by ourselves but doing the standard TA gig. Frankly, it's a nice change of pace to only be working for/with one faculty member; last semester I was grading for three, and the semesters before that could be anywhere from four to six. The workload will pick up significantly, but I'm looking forward to only answering to or grading for one person rather than everyone.

[hubris]

I assume you are reasonable for the whole shebang and not just leading discussion sections.

Seems ridiculous!Total drain from research, once you hit that level.

Good luck with this.

[fuzzylogician]

I assume you are reasonable for the whole shebang and not just leading discussion sections.

Seems ridiculous!Total drain from research, once you hit that level.

Good luck with this.

It depends a lot on whether or not it's three sections of the same class or if it's three different classes. It also makes a huge difference whether or not there are existing materials for those classes. I've found that teaching more than one section of the same class doesn't require much more preparation than just teaching it once, but obviously teaching differnt sections will take significantly longer. Same goes for prep time. OP: if at all possible, ask to teach sections of the same class and if you can choose timing - for me one right after the other saved the need to re-prepare. There are still more papers to grade, but you can give the same office hours, you only sit in on the class once and there's generally less hassle involved. But yes - I agree that if it's more than just leading discussions (e.g. actually preparing materials or doing more of the teaching) then it will make it very hard for you to do your research.

[rising_star]

The best people to ask about whether this is an overload are other graduate students in your department.

For additional information/advice, see the following:

[JustChill]

I've been assigned only one class, but it seems like there'll be plenty of work for it, because they mentioned that it'll take up about 20 hours per week. I hope in the future, when I know I'll have more than one class to teach per semester, I won't have to spend too much more than 20 hrs/week on them. Otherwise, this is going to be a very long program for me.