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Posted

Long story short: I ended up with a TA position (this upcoming semester) in a program that I'm applying to for a Ph.D. in the fall. (I'm a masters student at the school, but not officially in their department.)

If I do a good job as a TA, what do you think the chances are that they would accept me full time into their program? (I interviewed with both the current and former department chair for the position.)

My academic record is pretty competitive, save a semester when I was diagnosed with a chronic illness and my mediocre GRE scores.

Thoughts? I realize this is a pretty unconventional of ingratiating myself into their good graces.

Posted

Your position as a TA would give them additional insight into your work, so it can't hurt. Whether it will allow you to get an edge over other applicants, I don't know. Some programs stick strictly to the defined admissions criteria. Others take additional factors into consideration.

Posted

It definetely would not hurt (unless you do bad TAing job, but I am sure you will do great!) and it might help. But to what extent in might help - is very hard to predict.

Being in the program as a TA you will be able to learn a lot about it - and that is important. May be you will find out that it is not a good fit after all. Or may be you will see that it's a perfect fit and will be able to articulate that in your SOP because you will know all the datails about the program from actually being here. You might get a chance to talk to a person whom you would like to be your advisor. You should be very careful here of course, not to appear to pushy. But if you act wisely, they will see that you can be a great student and that, of course, can only help.

All in all, I believe that TAing in a program you want to apply to is a great opportunity. So congrats! :)

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