TA/RA or Fellowship better?

[bowdoinstudent]

Which is better, having a TA/RA or a fellowship - all with full-tuition waiver and health care benefits, etc? Obviously having a fellowship would mean that you are relieved of all teaching responsibility, is that a good thing? I got a "conditional" acceptance to a really good PhD program; they only accepted five students because the department only had the money to fund five teaching lines. But, they really wanted to bring me to their school and nominated me for a fellowship, which paid more and I wouldn't have to teach for 4 years. This is obviously good, right? But then again, if they really, really "liked" me, they would've accepted me with one of those five teaching lines in the first place? Should I be flattered that they are pulling all the stops for me, or is this basically a wait list thing? Wouldn't I want some teaching experiences in graduate school?? Thanks!

[inactive_since_inf]

These are my two cents on this issue:

A fellowship means no hassles in your research through the years.

Its a rare thing to get a fellowship.

IMHO TA ship is kind of boring.

The univ wants you

[coho]

i've heard it's important to get teaching experience . . .

maybe it's different between humanities and sciences?

[kdilks]

You can still get teaching experience with a fellowship, it's just not forced on you every semester. It's definitely a better situation.

[Tonights]

I personally would pick the fellowship. To repeat what was said above, you're not going to be excluded from getting experience, but it won't be foisted on you.

[mws17]

Fellowship sounds less pressure.

[IvyHope]

Once again, I'm the odd one out.

I think fellowships are very good awards- they are honorable. Etc. BUT teaching experience is vital for someone who wants a faculty position. And while you think you might be able to get some teaching experience without being forced, believe me they are going to give the teaching spots to students who are assigned to TA before they consider you.

For example, on my CV, if I'd gotten a fellowship, I'd have one line that says so. Because I have the opportunity to teach and research (yes, in addition to that which I do on my own) I have about a page's worth of lines on my vita that otherwise wouldn't be there. Just food for thought.

BUT, it doesn't mean waitlist at all. In fact, most places I know of will consider their fellowship students first, and then consider the remaining applications for teaching assistantships.

[ec86]

I would rather take the fellowship. Being funded by a fellowship doesn't mean you can't take on teaching responsibilities, but you're not forced to either. It's a win-win situation.

[MDLee]

i've heard it's important to get teaching experience . . .

maybe it's different between humanities and sciences?

Teaching experience is a huge plus--especially for job apps. However, there are ways to get that under fellowship. Its also possible at some universities to be there on fellowship but have one year of teaching duties so that you get the experience (my understanding is that this happens during the couple of years you are doing coursework so that you don't have to worry about it when you're researching/writing.

Fellowships are God's gift to grad students.

[belowthree]

I don't know if this is field specific, but from what I've seen in mine there's no way they'd prevent a fellowship student from TAing if they wanted to. There's just no way at all a fellowship can be a bad thing from what I've seen.

They may not guarantee you a consistent TA slot for the next several years, but at least the department I'm in always has extra TA positions around and can always slide students who want teaching experience into TA gigs. Professors in my department give these things to undergrads sometimes... there's no way you're not going to get them as a grad student on a fellowship if you want the experience.

Also in quite a few places you can try and get the university to appoint you to actually legitimately be a full instructor on a summer class if you really want the teaching experience. Those usually aren't things that just get allocated to people because they're slotted in as TAs for funding.

[rising_star]

Not all fellowships can be deferred and you can't always TA while on a fellowship. I think to answer the question you need to ask yourself what kind of college/university you want to work out and how they look at their applicants. If you want to be at a SLAC, you'll need to get teaching experience, for example.

[inactive_since_inf]

Fellowships are God's gift to grad students.

I agree!!!!