snappysorbet Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 Hi all, Three of the schools I've been admitted to have offered me funding, each in the form of teaching assistantships which would require me to teach my first year with at least a 1-1 load (varying by program). Obviously I would also be taking courses, etc, so my question is, what's typical, what's manageable, what's too much? Thanks!
Eigen Posted March 11, 2011 Posted March 11, 2011 A 1-1 load sounds fine to me. I have friends in English that were started off on 2-2 loads, so yours sounds manageable. By and large, the first semester is really challenging- you have the most stuff to put together. After you move through your courses, get settled into research and teaching... It becomes a lot more manageable.
snappysorbet Posted March 12, 2011 Author Posted March 12, 2011 A 1-1 load sounds fine to me. I have friends in English that were started off on 2-2 loads, so yours sounds manageable. By and large, the first semester is really challenging- you have the most stuff to put together. After you move through your courses, get settled into research and teaching... It becomes a lot more manageable. I also have an offer that would require a 2-2 load... what were your friends' experiences with that? (thanks for the input, btw!)
Eigen Posted March 12, 2011 Posted March 12, 2011 They seem to like it. But then they enjoy teaching, so... I think a lot of it depends on the classes you're teaching- especially the number of students per class. I think it will also depend on the required course load, and how much you're expected to research in that time period. In the sciences, we're expected (most places) to be putting in 40ish hours per week in the lab doing research our first semester- so a 2-2 load and 12 hours of courses on top of that makes for 70-80 hour weeks. If you don't have to put that much research time in, then I'd think it would be a lot more manageable. The people I know (in several disciplines) who were able to take a light research workload the first semester (and focus on classes and TAing) didn't find it nearly as bad. I'm really not sure how first semester research works in English, though.
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