RA vs TA choice

[Caveshvig]

I am looking at two competing offers of support (for the same program at the same institution). One is a standard GTA position and the other is a "Research Trainee Fellowship."  The GTA is offered to everyone coming in to this program and was a slam-dunk choice to accept to start wwith. Now, the offer of the RA position sounds even better - no teaching load, immediate start on the research, and more $. So, the question is what do I not know to ask. Apparently they offered this to me and one other incoming grad student - the other [identity not known] has turned it down. What am I not thinking of? 

[serenade]

On the surface, I say take the RA for all of the reasons you mentioned. I'd ask to clarify what the expected work hour load is for the RA (mine was 20 per week), but as long as it's not unreasonable, definitely take the RA. Maybe the other person wanted to gain teaching experience and so turned it down? You can always teach/TA later, but for the first year, this sounds like a good deal. 

[thelionking]

Maybe the TA time commitment is less than the RA commitment. Either that or the other student might be more interested in teaching than research or might be trying to develop a broader skill set and have a resume that has a wider ranges of experiences. In any case, I would focus more on your own interests and career path. What skill set do you want to develop and consider the time commitment involved for each opportunity too.

[maxhgns]

The RAship does indeed sound better. One thing to consider, however, is that there are RAships and there are RAships. I once did one that required absolutely no work on my part--it was basically just a way of giving me money. That was great. But I know plenty of people who have actually worked for their RAships, and some have worked a lot. So your other student might have been turned off by the prospect of working for a particular faculty member known to pile a lot of work onto her RAs. It's worth asking about what the expectations will be.

Teaching experience is indeed very important to acquire along the way, so keep that in mind. That said, you have plenty of time to pick some up in the years to come. Plus, actually teaching counts for more than just TAing.

[Caveshvig]

Thanks for the replies. 

The RA is apparently departmental and not (at least officially) tied to a specific researcher. That said, I assume they have some slot in mind at least. There is a new faculty member (XRD and NMR mostly) that started last fall and they were interviewing for an Analytical position over the summer. I assume they will want to give these folks some start on filling their labs - not exactly sure how all that works.

I probably actually have plenty of teaching experience already. A previous run at grad school I TA'd some (that was in Geology instead of Chemistry). Also, I taught high school for ten years so maybe that counts for something.

Thanks again.

[fuzzylogician]

Unless there is some hidden cost of working with someone insufferable or unreasonable demands on your time, I would generally tend to think the RAship is better. More money, less teaching, more time to work on actual research -- all obviously good things anyone would want. Bonus points if you get to develop new skills or get publications out of this (discuss issues authorship early!). Since you already have teaching experience, I don't think this is as much of a concern for you. Your high school teaching days will count for something if you play it right (you'll want to write research statements that integrate this past experience with some verbiage about what you learned that's applicable to college teaching; there's probably quite a lot, I would guess, to do with engaging everyone, dealing with trouble-makers, developing lesson plans, interactive teaching techniques, etc.) It would probably be useful to have just a tiny bit of TA/teaching experience in your field, if you have none, but frankly I'd rank that lower than having the extra time to produce meaningful research, because even at teaching institutions, that's eventually what will get you hired.