Canada - Is Teaching Assistantship Enough?

[Yams]

Hey - first post on GradCafe! 

 

I'm just finishing my Masters in the UK and I'm thinking about applying to UBC in Canada for a PhD in 2014. It seems like it's fairly difficult for international students to secure scholarships, so I was thinking that trying to get a TA position might be the best idea.

 

My question is - is it enough?? I've done some teaching at my current university and the problem is that hours are fairly sparse, unreliable, and completely dry up over the summer. I supported myself with a 'proper' part-time job (i.e. a regular 20 hours per week) and mainly did the teaching because I enjoyed it and wanted to get experience. 

 

Does anybody have any experience of being a PhD student and TA in Canada? Does it provide enough money to get by? 

 

Alternatively, does anyone have any better ideas for an international (British) student trying to fund PhD studies in Canada? 

 

Thanks! 

[surefire]

Hey - first post on GradCafe! 

 

I'm just finishing my Masters in the UK and I'm thinking about applying to UBC in Canada for a PhD in 2014. It seems like it's fairly difficult for international students to secure scholarships, so I was thinking that trying to get a TA position might be the best idea.

 

My question is - is it enough?? I've done some teaching at my current university and the problem is that hours are fairly sparse, unreliable, and completely dry up over the summer. I supported myself with a 'proper' part-time job (i.e. a regular 20 hours per week) and mainly did the teaching because I enjoyed it and wanted to get experience. 

 

Does anybody have any experience of being a PhD student and TA in Canada? Does it provide enough money to get by? 

 

Alternatively, does anyone have any better ideas for an international (British) student trying to fund PhD studies in Canada? 

 

Thanks! 

 

Hi there Yams!

 

Welcome to the Cafe (and preemptive welcome to Canada!)

 

A few qualifiers: I'm a domestic PhD student in Sociology at U of T. So, I can't quite speak to the bent of your field/international status/specific institution, I can speak to the experience of doing a PhD in Canada and whether or not the TA allocation is "enough".

 

One of the great distinctions re: PhD programs in Canada is that many many many of them are at least partially funded with fellowships and TA/RA duties. From what I understand, this scenario is very different in the US, for example. Now, in my experience, these funding arrangements apply to both domestic and international students; however, because international student fees are quite a bit higher than domestic, international spots are competitive (international students typically make up between 10-30% of a cohort, admission committees for programs are given directives by the institution's school of graduate studies re: how many international students they can take in a given year).

 

All that being said, each institution is different.

I had a quick look at UBC's site: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/international-students/funding-international-students

It looks like there are some good funding opportunities for international students here, though of course you need to check the dynamics of the program you are considering.

 

Also worth considering: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/prospective-students/international-students/fees-costs

Those international student fees for UBC are actually quite low! I actually pay more than that as a domestic at U of T!

 

In any case, it looks like a lot of the funding will be ascertained automatically and the info conveyed in your admission offer, so you should be able to make an informed decision, should you be admitted, as to whether or not you will accept.

 

A few general points:

 

- It is possible that you will have opportunities to both TA and RA. In my experience, the former pays more than the latter ($40+/hour vs. $20-$30/hour). It is possible that you may have some control in these allocations. For example, you may apply for TA positions and receive several offers that you can chose from, or you may just be assigned a post. You might also be able to apply for additional TA positions DEPENDING on the rules/opportunities of your program/admission offer/union. My specialization is in demand, and my funding arrangement permits it, so I applied for an additional post this year and got it. The RA opportunities will depend on many things, like whether or not faculty members are at a place in their own research where they are hiring RAs, whether or not they have funding enough to do so, and whether or not your own interests align. You can start trawling faculty pages to see what projects profs are actively working on and whether or not they are holding external awards (like SSHRC). The bottom line is: you will get an offer, but you may have wiggle room within it.

 

- In order to investigate the "wiggle room" potential, and also the experiences of international students in the program, I would recommend that you contact the grad admin for your program and ask POLITELY if s/he might refer you to a current international student in the program so that you can ask some questions. This has the benefit of being put in touch with someone who is willing to talk to you (no "cold call" ickiness and better potential for a response) AND you are more likely to be able to have a free and open exchange about some of these details with someone who is living it. The money discussion can be awkward with formal directors of the department/program who will tell you that "fit" should be your primary concern (this is true, but it doesn't change the fact that money is a quality of life thing and you're looking at a multi-year investment with a PhD program). The money discussion can also be weird with faculty members who, honestly, might not have a clue re: grad student funding arrangements (they have their own funding to worry about). So, research the UBC funding pages and ask for the ear of a current international student to get the scoop re: what "living with" the international student funding arrangement/opportunities are like. Do more of your own research first, so that you can ask informed questions; and just, yeah, be brief and polite; PhD students can be a busy and frantic bunch, but we also like to help each other out, ask a few specific (but not too invasive) questions followed with a "what do you wish that someone had told you" inquiry and you may get some great insights!

 

- I'm not entirely sure what you mean by a "proper" part-time job, but I wouldn't bank on being able to have one of those, for two reasons. (1) Your student visa/funding arrangement/institutional parameters may prohibit any (paid) work external to UBC. (2) I can't imagine having 20 hours per week to spare. Now, I know many students who are able to pick up extra stuff within the parameters of the institution. You can tutor, or proctor exams, or work paid positions with your union. These, in my experience, are tiny commitments that you can pick up on the fly (when they're available), that pay a decent hourly rate, so things like that can help you through thin patches. In my program, such opportunities are advertised on our departmental listserv.

 

- The bursaries/awards ect; that come up through the year are totally worth applying for and are a great supplement, but you need to be on top of them or the deadlines will just slip out from under you. No one will nag you to do them, so you have to be organized, but yeah, I want to stress that as a strategy.

 

- The summer CAN be sparse. In my department, there are TA/RA opportunities in the summer, but spots can be competitive. I applied for a TA post and didn't get one. I'm doing a tiny RA post and am supplementing with a bursary I received in May and some money I squirreled away from the earlier extra TA post. I get the impression that my next summer will be less of a scramble because the prof I'm working with on the RA post, after testing me out this summer, will expand my duties and hours on her project next year (I also heard that summer TA posts are easier for upper-year students to secure). So yeah, you have to hustle but you can make it work.

 

- Vancouver and Toronto are the most expensive cities in Canada. I get by just fine in Toronto, but my cost of living IS high, and yours will be too.

 

- UBC is gorgeous; so is Vancouver!

 

I hope that some of that is helpful! Let me know if I can elaborate on any of the above! Best of luck!

[nugget]

I agree with the comments written above.

 

As an aside, if you want to live in a big city in Canada with low living costs consider McGill University or Concordia U. Living in Montreal is much cheaper than Toronto or Vancouver. You probably won't find any work off campus in Montreal (even if your visa permits it) because most jobs require you to speak French. But if you have a TEOFL certificate you could find work fairly easily teaching ESL part time.

Edited August 8, 2013 by jenste

[TakeruK]

A couple of notes about how TAships work in Canada:

 

1. Unlike the US, TAships in Canada, especially at UBC, are paid on an hourly basis. In many US schools, you just get some amount of funding and you're expected to TA whatever you're assigned in return for the support. In Canada, TAships are specific employment contracts for a set number of hours. So, your letter of offer will generally say that you are accepted with X hours of TAships. The pay rate is generally high -- up to $40/hr at some schools in Canada, but this is because the school wants to be able to pay you enough money to live without requiring that you work 20 hours per week! 

 

2. Also unlike the US, Canadian schools have unionized their TAs. So, at UBC, you will be part of a TA union which governs the way TAships are assigned. This ensures that TAships are distributed fairly and that you get all the benefits of an employee (e.g. sick leave, conference leave, etc.). Most importantly, this means the TA pay scale is constant across all of UBC -- TAs in the humanities are paid the same hourly rate as TAs in the sciences. There used to be a big divide (with TAs in the humanities being paid less and thus must work more hours than TAs in the sciences) but this is no longer an issue!

 

3. The bottom line is that you don't "apply" for TAships at UBC and many Canadian schools. What happens is that if a school accepts you, they put together a funding package to pay your stipend. This funding package could consist of TAships, RAships, fellowships, or other awards. When they give you your offer letter, this letter will say "you will be supported by X hours of TAships, etc" (Note: it might not stipulate the number of hours directly, but in terms of "units", where 1 unit is some number of hours). This usually means you cannot get more hours of TAships than your offer letter -- after all, the department only has the budget for a limited set of hours, which they have to distribute to all their current students in a fair way. So, the only way to get more hours is to wait until all the hours have been allocated and if, for some reason, there are leftover hours, then the department could choose to put the application up.

 

Here is the UBC Geography program's funding page (assuming this is the relevant department): http://www.geog.ubc.ca/graduate/funding.html It clearly states how much money you should expect from a TAship (about $11k). At the top of this same page, the department commits to providing every student with $20k of income. If this is AFTER tuition, then it's not so bad, but if this is before tuition (in Canada, we usually get paid our stipend and then we have to pay the tuition ourselves), then it could be pretty hard to live on in Vancouver. Note also that this page says most students accepted are guaranteed TAships for the first 4 years of their PhD (it will say this in your offer letter). This means that if you are in year 5, you will have to convince your supervisor to pay you more in RAships, or hope that there are some leftover TAships after the people in the first 4 years of PhD (i.e. guaranteed TAships) are assigned.

 

In addition, there are usually extra fees due to your international status. Like surefire said, the department usually takes care of this -- that is, that $20k number above should be net of any additional international fees. Many departments have special funding from the University to offset the cost of hiring an international student (and this will show up as an award of some kind). There may be some leftover fees not covered, but for the most part, I think you can expect to be paid so that your "take home" income is roughly the same level as a domestic student.

 

Finally, work permits are pretty easy to get in Canada, much easier than in the US! I have a friend from the UK that exceeded his guaranteed years of funding and had to supplement his income by taking an adjunct teaching position at a different university elsewhere. This is an extreme case though. Another easy way to supplement income is to do private tutoring on the side. At UBC, the going rate is something like $30 to $40/hour, but depending on the material that you know, it might be hard to find students. First year undergrads (especially pre-med students) would be your main customers and I'm not sure if there are a lot of them taking intro geography classes. If you know enough to tutor Calculus or any of the intro sciences though, you can make a good amount of money this way!

[Yams]

Wow - thank you so much for the replies, everyone! I don't have time to reply right now but just wanted to say a massive thanks 

 

Will respond later on, but it all sounds positive so far! Looking forward to getting the ball rolling with my applications.