Schools with awesome TA opportunities

[karablythe]

Hey everyone,

Here's the deal. It's my dream to be a professor one day, and therefore I have been looking into lots of MA and PhD programs that offer good TA possibilities. However, I had a question about how that works.

I've been told that there are 3 basic types of TA experiences.

1. At big Research 1 universities (the UCs, UW, etc.) TAs typically teach small, break-out seminars; in other words, the TAs help guide a once-a-week class within the guidelines/expectations of a tenured professor who is responsible for the full class. Am I making sense? Proper grammar seems to be escaping me at the moment.

2. At prestigious, private universities that don't want grad students teaching their classes (ie. ivy league schools, duke, stanford), TAs typically just sort of...help? Their study is more focused on their own scholarship than on teaching.

3. At less prestigious, big state universities (like University of Arizona, University of Nevada), TAs are given their own classes and the freedom to teach their own curriculum.

First, am I being clear? It's been a very long day and my communication skills aren't functioning properly. Second, is this a generally good assessment of the varying graduate student experience?

Thanks, I'll stop blabbering incoherently now.

[ComeBackZinc]

Just as a point of clarification, it's not true to say that the most prestigious schools employ fewer grad students as TAs. I'm sure there are exceptions where that's true, but the norm is actually that they teach quite a few. For example, about 10 years or so 55% of Harvard's classes were taught by graduate students. That's a majority of all classes. That became something of a black eye for them, and I believe they lowered the number a bit, but a figure that high isn't out of step with the broader reality at Ivies.

I do believe that Ivies employ far fewer adjuncts, but I'm not sure.

[generic31290]

Many (most?) language/literature students get the opportunity to teach their own sections, mostly for one reason: freshman comp. I'm at a UC and taught three terms of it. Lots of freedom, great fun.

From what I hear, few of the other departments at my school have that opportunity (the grads just TA or research).

[ComeBackZinc]

I only really know about my own school, Purdue. Here, the first year all funded English grads (including MFAs) teach introductory composition. Our intro class is a different animal than most schools; it's a five day a week class, with scheduled one-on-one conferencing with students every single week. Because it's five days a week we teach a 1/1 yearly load, in contrast to most schools, where grads typically teach a 2/1. Within intro to comp there is a fairly broad range of syllabus approaches, such as composition through literature, popular culture, digital writing, and many others. We don't assist in the teaching but are the instructors of record and have broad leeway within our classes, although we have to choose our textbooks from a list prepared by the department.

After the first year, there's more options. You can tutor at the writing lab, teach an upper level business or technical writing class, teach literature, teach a learning community, among others. Obviously, your individual field within English plays a factor in what you get to teach, but there's a fair amount of wiggle room.

[Starlajane]

I really think you can't generalize, at least not according to prestige and/or public/private status; every place is different (although each one probably does fall into one of the aforementioned categories).

Moreover, a lot of it varies by department: at my alma mater (big, prestigious state school), TA's taught all of the beginning language (French, Spanish, etc.) courses solo but a prof with a PhD/adjunct taught freshman comp with several TA's helping out but never guiding the class themselves. I think this was b/c the language classes were small and the lit classes were not. In fact, the latter was always the model for amphitheater-size courses.

In short, if you are looking for a particular opportunity, it's best to ask around rather than assume.

[Origin=Goal]

Many classes at the R1s are instructed by GSIs (graduate student instructors) rather than lecturers/adjuncts; these positions are often advanced courses that pay more than TA-ing and, to varying extents, designed at the discretion of the GSI.

Starla has got the right idea in any case: ask around, especially current graduate students in your future department

[pel]

I graduated from a private ivy league college and there were a lot of TA opportunities especially for humanities students. I remember a few GenEd literature courses assisted by comp lit students but language courses were usually taught by a course head professor and grad students who were native speakers. I guess it all depends on the policies of the institution.

[ComeBackZinc]

Starla has got the right idea in any case: ask around, especially current graduate students in your future department

+1.

[hopefulwoolfian]

I attend Tufts and it's really great in terms of teaching. The first year is a fellowship year (which is where I'm at now) with no teaching while you get used to coursework. You serve as a TA and take a pedagogy course for the first semester of your second year to get you used to teaching, with additional mentoring over the next summer. Then starting in the beginning of your third year you teach one section of basic writing a semester. It's capped at 10 students and I've been told you have a lot of leeway to design your own course. I haven't started my teaching yet, but all the more advanced grad students say that it's really supportive- you can always go to faculty to get advice, but they don't hold your hand or force you to teach a certain way.

[jywayne]

I'm finishing up a master's program at Ohio University. I've had great options here--I've done freshman composition, assisted in Early British and American surveys (I'm an Americanist but I do some work in Early Modern too), and am teaching my own course to juniors and seniors right now on the American West. I definitely could not have asked for better opportunities anywhere ese.