TAship and RAship at the same time?

[respectyourheart]

Hi everyone,

One school has offered me funding for a year through a TAship ($10,000) and an RAship ($12,000). The TAship would be an approximately 10 hour commitment per week, but the RAship is more subjective depending on the professor's expectations (of which they have not been very forthcoming). I know that time commitments for RAs vary from professor to professor, but I would appreciate it if you could answer as best you can.

Is it realistic for me as a first year and full time MA student taking classes to juggle the demands of a TA and an RA, and still maintain some sanity? I like having work to do, but also value some personal time once in awhile and don't want to burn myself out.

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[biotechie]

I do that in the life sciences and have done it since the day I stepped into the lab. I spend 10-15 hours per week teaching and grading, and then 60+ in my lab working. Most concentrations outside of science don't have quite the time sink with the RAship since they don't have to worry as much about experiments not working... or they can at least do more of their work from home. If you're working with human subjects, etc, obviously an RAship can take up a lot of time. I spend so much time in lab because I want publishable data, and 90% of the time, the first time you do something, it doesn't work.

 

I still find a Saturday every few weeks to just lounge around or go outside to play. I think you'll be fine.

[ak48]

I spend so much time in lab because I want publishable data, and 90% of the time, the first time you do something, it doesn't work.

 

A 10 percent first-success rate? What is the secret, master?

[biotechie]

A 10 percent first-success rate? What is the secret, master?

 

Experience, grasshopper. 6 years of it. Luck is also of importance.

[sanfram]

I cannot promise you sanity (we are talking about grad school, ya know ), but I am doing both of these things right now. Actually, I did that last year. This year I'm teaching my own course, doing 10 hours of RA work a week, plus my own coursework/research, blah blah blah.

 

Are you sure they don't cap your RA hours at a particular number? Kind of absurd if not. Not gonna lie, it's really tough, but overall I'm happy with what I'm doing. If you plan on doing doing research professionally, then the RAship is pretty key. 

Edited March 20, 2013 by sanfram

[biotechie]

Are you sure they don't cap your RA hours at a particular number? Kind of absurd if not. Not gonna lie, it's really tough, but overall I'm happy with what I'm doing. If you plan on doing doing research professionally, then the RAship is pretty key. 

I should make it clear that I'm paid a salary... I don't get paid for every hour. We all know that being paid for 20 hours per week in science means you work 3x that. Most areas, you get paid a certain amount of hours, but you really work more.

[respectyourheart]

Thanks for your insight, everyone! It is very helpful and I really appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge with me. I am going to see if I can find more info on the time commitment my supervisor would expect of me as an RA. 

[TakeruK]

In Canada, it's normal to have our stipend come from both TA and RA the way you described it. From what I understand, the US system is a bit different, here they might only pay you for TAing and then the rest of the money comes from fellowship. Or, some of my US offers say something like 20 hours / week TAing but in reality, it won't take that long and it's basically a way to pay for your research without officially paying for your research.

 

During my Masters in Canada, my RAship was a set amount decided by the department. My pay stubs every month said that I was paid something like $23/hr for 18 hours a month, but that's just formality (The # of hours is just computed from dividing the money available for RAship by the university standard hourly rate for RAs). However, in the sciences, our RAship is paying for (some of) the time we spend on our actual thesis work, so the RA work is work I would have to do anyways to graduate. So, the amount of hours I actually put into my work was a discussion between my supervisor (based on what was necessary to complete the project) and myself (based on how much quality I wanted my work to have).

 

If you are not in the case where the RAship is paying for your own research (i.e. you have to do a side project to get this money), then you should probably negotiable an hourly commitment BEFORE accepting the offer. I would consider non-thesis research work in the same category as TAing -- i.e. although it's good to gain teaching/research experience, you are mostly doing it to pay your stipend, and it would really be better for you to spend that time/energy in your own thesis work. So, if it's a side project, negotiate the number of hours based on an hourly rate. In undergrad, I was paid $18/hr (and logged my hours every week) to do a side project in my final year. At Queen's, at the MSc level, it was about $22-$23/hr. So, to use a round number, if it's $20 /hr, then the RAship is probably worth about 600 hours. Just to use more round numbers, let's say it's 50 weeks per year (50 work weeks, 2 weeks vacation maybe?), then this is 30 hours per week. Sounds like a lot but remember that you are probably only TAing about 8 months a year. In the summer, you won't have classes or TAing, so you can probably put in 50 hours per week of research, while during the school year, you might need to spend more time on TAing, classes, and doing your own work (if your RAship isn't part of your thesis work). If your RAship IS part of your thesis work, then this is a great funding package, I think.

 

Another tip for time management is to really manage your time on your TA work. If you're paid 10 hours a week, then stick to it. The hardest part for me was realising that I cannot spend time to write detailed comments on every student's paper because the school isn't paying me enough time to do so. I try to save time (and maximize feedback) by using rubrics that I can tick off places that was well done / needs improvement. I let my students know that I spend as much time on them as I could and if they would like more, then they should petition the department to assign more TA (or TA-hours) to their course in the feedback forms.  

 

Also, although most of my numbers above are in "per week" units, you really should be thinking hours averaged over a term (or even a year). Some weeks, you might do more TAing -- I try to offer more office hours and help during the week before finals/projects due. In the first few weeks, students don't generally show up to office hours, so while I still have official office hours, I just do my own work in my own office and only count the time as "time worked" if a student scheduled an appointment with me, or if someone actually drops in! 

[Eigen]

Hi everyone,

One school has offered me funding for a year through a TAship ($10,000) and an RAship ($12,000). The TAship would be an approximately 10 hour commitment per week, but the RAship is more subjective depending on the professor's expectations (of which they have not been very forthcoming). I know that time commitments for RAs vary from professor to professor, but I would appreciate it if you could answer as best you can.

Is it realistic for me as a first year and full time MA student taking classes to juggle the demands of a TA and an RA, and still maintain some sanity? I like having work to do, but also value some personal time once in awhile and don't want to burn myself out.

Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

I'd also suggest getting some clarification from the school, because hour-wise, that looks like a half-TAship, rather than a full one (usually 20 hours). 

 

In that case, it should be much more manageable to do both. 

[TakeruK]

I'd also suggest getting some clarification from the school, because hour-wise, that looks like a half-TAship, rather than a full one (usually 20 hours). 

 

In that case, it should be much more manageable to do both. 

 

In Canada, a full TAship is usually 10-12 hours per week. Students on fellowships do a half-TAship, which is about 4-6 hours per week, or no TAing at all. In rare cases, there are double TAships that might reach 20 hours per week. In addition, most Collective Bargaining Agreements will limit the amount of TA workload to that of a full TAship year-round (so some students might double-TA in one semester and not TA in another). I'm assuming that the OP is talking about programs in their signature, which are all Canadian schools! Still, getting clarification from the school is better than speculations of strangers like me on the Internet, but whether or not 10 hours per week is "full" or "half" is just a matter of terminology -- it's going to be the same amount of work either way!

Edited March 20, 2013 by TakeruK

[Eigen]

Oh, thanks for the clarification. All the TAships I'm familiar with in the US (and RAships, nominally) are 20 hours. 

[juilletmercredi]

Yes.  Most people do this, in fact.

 

Sanity is overrated, though.

 

I also definitely do not spend 20 hours a week on my TAship.  I would never get anything done.  When I taught my own lab, then I spent about that much, but I was designing my own homework assignments and grading like mad.  After a while you learn to minimize the amount of time that you spend on it.  I think including class time and office hours (6 hours a week) I probably spend 12 hours max on the TAship I currently have, and that's on a week that I have grading to do or a lecture to put together.  On weeks that I don't have grading or lectures, maybe 8-10 hours.

[foucaultmania]

Were both of them offered in the same package? Or the professor contacted you specifically for RAship?

Edited March 22, 2013 by foucaultmania

[respectyourheart]

Foucaultmania, the person who would be my potential supervisor said that they would hire me as a research assistant and that the department could offer me a TAship to further help with funding. Thanks again for your responses. I have asked my potential supervisor for some more information concerning the RA position they have offered me.