RA vs TA

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satyad18
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RA vs TA

Post by satyad18 » Tue Jun 08, 2010 11:16 pm

Can one get an RA in first year, instead of TA.?
If so, under what conditions or circumstances can this happen.?

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HappyQuark
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Re: RA vs TA

Post by HappyQuark » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:26 am

satyad18 wrote:Can one get an RA in first year, instead of TA.?
If so, under what conditions or circumstances can this happen.?
Yes, it is possible to get an RA your first year but it is generally very difficult and is typically reserved for the exceptionally brilliant and experienced students. It is generally more difficult to get an RA in your first year in theory than in experiment and the difficulty also changes based on what the field is (e.g. Condensed Matter would be easier to get an RA in than HEP). The general reasoning behind this is that research is where a school gets its funding, prestige, etc and so they tend to want to give research opportunities to the more experienced and educated grad students (i.e. not first year students). The only instance in which it will benefit them to bring in an inexperienced student is when that student is clearly brilliant and it will benefit the research in the long run to get them involved in research early on.

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satyad18
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Re: RA vs TA

Post by satyad18 » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:44 am

HappyQuark wrote:
satyad18 wrote:Can one get an RA in first year, instead of TA.?
If so, under what conditions or circumstances can this happen.?
Yes, it is possible to get an RA your first year but it is generally very difficult and is typically reserved for the exceptionally brilliant and experienced students. It is generally more difficult to get an RA in your first year in theory than in experiment and the difficulty also changes based on what the field is (e.g. Condensed Matter would be easier to get an RA in than HEP). The general reasoning behind this is that research is where a school gets its funding, prestige, etc and so they tend to want to give research opportunities to the more experienced and educated grad students (i.e. not first year students). The only instance in which it will benefit them to bring in an inexperienced student is when that student is clearly brilliant and it will benefit the research in the long run to get them involved in research early on.
Thanks. That helped. :)

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grae313
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Re: RA vs TA

Post by grae313 » Wed Jun 09, 2010 5:39 pm

Find a professor that wants to pay for you to go to graduate school and spend most of your time taking classes and very little in the lab and, bingo, you have an RA your first year. Simple as that. ;)

I should mention that some programs are different. Stanford applied physics, for instance, gives all first year students RAs. This is more common in departments that don't teach a lot of classes and much less common in physics.

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satyad18
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Re: RA vs TA

Post by satyad18 » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:18 am

grae313 wrote: Find a professor that wants to pay for you to go to graduate school and spend most of your time taking classes and very little in the lab and, bingo, you have an RA your first year. Simple as that.
cool.. :wink:
grae313 wrote:I should mention that some programs are different.
So does it depend on the department or the professor.?!



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