oseirus Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Hey Nat & SL, can you speak to the suggestion that Princeton doesn't really require their students to teach as TAs/TFs as much as the other ivies do. What other schools don't put a lot of emphasis on their PhD candidates teaching?
superfluousflo Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 NYU is the only other program that comes to mind that doesn't require teaching. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to hurt career prospects for Princeton or NYU grads.
crazedandinfused Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 It would be interesting to run a regression (I say that very rarely) between years of TAship and job placement.
sandyvanb Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 NYU is the only other program that comes to mind that doesn't require teaching. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to hurt career prospects for Princeton or NYU grads. NYU used to require teaching from their candidates. My POI said that some of their candidates are having a problem landing TT jobs right after graduation because they don't have teaching experience. That's just what was communicated to me... We talked about this issue a great deal because I am teaching full-time and I was concerned about losing progress as a teacher. It is a steep learning curve and I want to continue to make improvements in the classroom.
New England Nat Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Princeton does not allow it's students to precept (TA) until after they are done with course work, and then it is voluntary. The compensation increases if you precept but it also alters for tax purposes so it really doesn't go up. Most everyone precepts even if they are not required, and most people at least do a semester of adjuncting at one of NJ's other fine institutions for the purposes of having teaching experiance on their CVs. It doesn't seem to hurt people on the job market, on the other hand I know some people on hiring committees say it is a handicap.
TMP Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Princeton, what I've heard is more interested in having their students focus on their studies and research. NYU is a different story. The 5 year fellowship deal is merely the administration's tactic to clamp down unionization efforts by graduate students. Teaching option is available and you would slimy be paid extra for the courses you teach.
New England Nat Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Princeton, what I've heard is more interested in having their students focus on their studies and research. That's certainly part of it. It's also because the school sells itself to the undergrads as a place where they will be taught by professors and not graduate students. I think this is more the real motivation. YMMV.
TMP Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Guys! After messing with the site some more, I found it!!!! Ive been recommended for admissions at Wisconsin!!! Yup, that's what I meant by my little post the other day about my POI sending me a response that he expects good news and details to follow, after I emailed him ( he told me to after our conversation in December) Now I'm really happy! StrangeLight and Sparky 2
crazedandinfused Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Guys! After messing with the site some more, I found it!!!! Ive been recommended for admissions at Wisconsin!!! Yup, that's what I meant by my little post the other day about my POI sending me a response that he expects good news and details to follow, after I emailed him ( he told me to after our conversation in December) Now I'm really happy! Huzzah!!! That's great, congratulations!
Safferz Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Guys! After messing with the site some more, I found it!!!! Ive been recommended for admissions at Wisconsin!!! Yup, that's what I meant by my little post the other day about my POI sending me a response that he expects good news and details to follow, after I emailed him ( he told me to after our conversation in December) Now I'm really happy! Congrats!!!
superfluousflo Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 Princeton, what I've heard is more interested in having their students focus on their studies and research. NYU is a different story. The 5 year fellowship deal is merely the administration's tactic to clamp down unionization efforts by graduate students. Teaching option is available and you would slimy be paid extra for the courses you teach. According to the National Labor Relations Board's 2004 decision, TAs at private universities do not have the right to unionize. By not allowing students to TA, the school keeps graduate students from having a claim to form a union. NYU students' efforts to unionize have been the most well-reported, but it's not a problem unique to them.
StrangeLight Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 (edited) congratulations, tickle!!! awesome. that is so awesome. :D go do a happy dance, lady. as far as which places don't ask you to TA, princeton and NYU are the only two i know of off hand, and i can confirm what others have said: the university fellowships pay decently ($22K a few years back, not sure now) for anywhere but NYC. students then TA or (if they're post-comps) adjunct to supplement their income so they can afford groceries and an apartment where you're not sleeping next to your minifridge and hot plate. a lot of assistant professor-level job postings (the stuff we'd be competing for as grad students) are 4/4 teaching loads. 4 courses each semester. not only will job candidates have to teach these 4 classes, they'll have to prove they can teach them by creating model syllabi and giving student lectures during their campus interviews/visits. if a job applicant's CV does not demonstrate that they could actually do all this teaching, they're not really considered for the job. that's good and bad. bad because the job market is so horrendous that we all need any job prospects we can get, and losing out on a big chunk of the tenure-track jobs open to someone of our rank is not good. but it IS good because you don't want a 4/4 teaching load anyway. even if you LOOOOOOVE teaching and don't care about research or mentoring or service to the department, you still don't want a 4/4 teaching load. at schools with lighter teaching loads, the quantity of teaching experience matters less, but the quality of your teaching ability is still crucial and has sunk many a candidate with brilliant research going for an R1 job with 1/1 or 2/2 teaching. and the only way to be good at teaching is to work on it. hard to work on it if you never do it. the tl;dr version: if you're in a situation where you don't HAVE to teach but you can, you should choose to teach for at least one year, possibly two. you will disqualify yourself from many of the tenure-track jobs open to us right out of a PhD program if you don't have some teaching experience. Edited February 5, 2012 by StrangeLight
goldielocks Posted February 5, 2012 Author Posted February 5, 2012 Who's watching the game right now? That's a good distraction from apps!
pugsley87 Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 I am! Have money on Giants, even though I like Pats better.
oseirus Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 um I've been watching ESPN all day and now I'm watching the game ... I feel terrible that I am not partaking in the answers being given ... OK ... back to the game .. I SWEAR tomorrow I will redouble my dedication and efforts on grade cafe ... scout's honor!
goldielocks Posted February 6, 2012 Author Posted February 6, 2012 I just like to critique the historicity of all commercials/montages. Like last year (or maybe the year before) with the patriotic montage that showed D-Day...
jlk88 Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 Hey congrats to everyone so far! Have any Indiana University applicants heard anything? There was an acceptance posted on the result survey, but that's the only one I've seen. Last year they didn't start letting people know until (what equates to) this coming Monday. Just wondering if anyone has heard anything. Thanks! I've not heard anything yet, so I'm hoping that's just some kind of outlier. Would be great to hear from them this week, though. The silence is just killing me. Haven't heard anything yet either. Good luck to you both!
sandyvanb Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 Congrats Tickle! What great news! but it IS good because you don't want a 4/4 teaching load anyway. even if you LOOOOOOVE teaching and don't care about research or mentoring or service to the department, you still don't want a 4/4 teaching load. I agree! I didn't have to do mentoring or service this year but I do think that preparing and submitting my apps counted as research, and I had a 5/4 teaching load. Even if I didn't have anything else going on teaching five classes as a new instructor this fall was insane. The four I have now seems like a cakewalk compared to the fall. I couldn't have done it if I didn't have such an amazing mentor who taught me about pedagogy, gave me materials to base my lectures off of and was there for every question I had. Furthermore, I had the support of my department who didn't expect me to know how to deal with every issue from how to handle a classroom full of disrespectful football players, to the protocol of disability services. The department also gave me copies of all of the recent syllabi to use to form my own, observed my class and gave me feedback. This year was terrifying, but I would rather go through this now than as a newly minted PhD never having taught a class as the instructor of record.
Curlicue Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 I have a feeling this week is going to be craaaaaazyyyyyyyy!
uhohlemonster Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 I have a feeling this week is going to be craaaaaazyyyyyyyy! i hope you are right! i just know i'm going to be glued to the results page and refreshing my application decision sites (the ones I can find, that is.)
crater21 Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 Yeah, I have a feeling that this week is going to bring news from some of my schools (none have sent decisions yet). I realized this morning that I'm kind of okay with the waiting period, and I wouldn't mind it being a bit longer. The waiting period is at least a hopeful time - you think anything is possible. I like that feeling before decisions start landing on my desk with a cold, hard thud. Good luck all!
sandyvanb Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 I was thinking that this was going to be a big week too... On Friday evenings I feel a sense of disappointment and relief. On Sunday nights, I feel anxious...
Safferz Posted February 6, 2012 Posted February 6, 2012 It's a mix of dread and excitement for me. I expect to hear back from quite a few schools this week, and while I'm optimistic, I know I won't get in everywhere. I just hope I don't start off with a string of rejections after Northwestern
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