Droping 0.5 TAship???

[cathou]

I am third year PHD, I have a funding package which provides me with a full TAship.

This year I am being offered two 0.5 TAship (one of which is NOT in my field). However I was also given the option to only take 0.5. I am trying to see if only taking 0.5 would screw me up in the long run? Also how taking only 0.5 would affect my OGS. Would I get to keep more? Right now, from what I understand, I will received two 5000$ payments (september and january) + normal salary (TAship+grants) then in May I will receive another 5000$ however my TAship will be reduce by 5000 for the summer semester.

 

[TakeruK]

The OGS is worth $5000 per semester (4 months) and that doesn't change based on your TA load because the school cannot reduce your OGS allotment due to TA amounts. Instead, they may or may not reduce other sources of funding that they can control (e.g. grants and internal fellowships).

Thus, your total take-home stipend may or may not change depending on your TA load. At my last Ontario program, they had pretty clear distinctions on how much your total stipend would be if you had/didn't have an OGS and whether you had 0.5 or 1.0 units of TAships. At my program, all OGS holders were limited to 0.5 TAships by default, and the extra 0.5 TAship would only be offered if there were extra TA spots needed to be filled. So, if you took a 1.0 TAship you would be getting paid more (but also have to do more work).

In terms of your degree, I don't think taking a 0.5 TAship is going to hurt you unless you are hoping to amass a lot of teaching experience (but still, TA experience is only useful to a certain extent, 1.0 vs 0.5 this year may not make a difference). But, you could and should talk to the department to see if taking 0.5 vs. 1.0 TAships would affect your stipend and whether or not you want to do more work for more money.

[cathou]

Thanks I am waiting for the offices to open this morning to find out more.

I am leaning towards taking only 0.5 as I would love all the extra time I can get to finish my thesis. But obviously money is also a concern.

[TakeruK]

Good luck! I feel like TAing in programs where the TA pay is the main/only source of income is a Catch-22: You need to TA to have money to pay for tuition and living costs, but TAing takes up time and extends the length of your degree, which means you need more money to pay for tuition and living costs, so you have to TA, but, ....

[cathou]

I guess I now need to change my question slightly... I have spent all morning trying to reach anyone either from the union or from my department but it seems like there are lots of meeting going on...

I am trying to figure out what else will be affected by going down to 0.5? Union wise... health benefit? graduate financial assistance?

[TakeruK]

I hope you are able to get in touch with everyone you need to talk to soon. Yes, you make a good point about being affected by benefits/union rules if you take a 0.5 TAship. At Queen's, I think it didn't matter how many hours you worked at all.