Assistantship load!!

[Benfit]

I believe that every one, who has got admitted somewhere, has already received the information of assistantship and financial package.

How much does assistantship (teaching, research...) take you a week?
how do you guys think, 10 hours a week is too much?

[bestbearblackbear]

That seems like it is on the low end...

[Benfit]

yep. Another school requires me to devote at least 20 hours per week - Wow, i would be their slave rather than a grad student, right?
So, how many hours per week will you need to devote to TA, RA?

[will]

20 hours per week is a lot as far as TA workload goes... But you're hardly a slave. Plenty of fresh college graduates work 50 hour weeks for certainly not 2.5 times your stipend (even including their benefits), let alone full time student tuition.

[bestbearblackbear]

Yeah. The programs I am deciding between lists 15-20 hours a week - who knows what that actually equates to practically.

[quizivex]

yeah compared to all the fields where people actually have to pay tuition to get a PhD I'm pretty grateful I'm getting free that would otherwise cost $40k per year... oh yea and they give me free money to get an apartment with and buy frozen dinners with... how cool is that!!! The least I can do is run a silly undergrad lab, lol!!

In fact if I had to choose, I'd rather TA than RA cuz I like teaching and I feel my experimental expertise is minimal and I'd rather give myself some time to build up the skills than to dive into research from the very beginning.

[butsurigakusha]

When comparing offers, I think it is important to take into account that after the first year, we're all going to end up doing research anyway, if your an experimentalist. I guess it is more common for theorists to have to TA after their first year. A lot of the fellowships that are offered are only for the first year. Plus, I think some schools actually require you to work as a TA at some point in order to receive your PhD. Even if it isn't required, I think most people will tell you that they recommend it, especially if you are hoping for a career in academia.

[twistor]

RA is definately better than TA. You're getting a Ph.d. not a teaching certificate.

[butsurigakusha]

I definitely wouldn't want to TA for more than a couple of semesters, but I actually am more than happy to work as a TA. Especially since I am not really sure what kind of research I want to do anyway. That is, as long as I am not spending the majority of my time grading. Grading seriously sucks.

[al-Haytham]

don't worry, you shouldn't be stuck with grading. At my undergrad institution grading is assigned to those grad students whose weak English prohibits them from interacting with students, and when I visited UIUC, a professor said that they also had a similar approach towards appointing graders.

[Benfit]

20 hours per week is a lot as far as TA workload goes... But you're hardly a slave. Plenty of fresh college graduates work 50 hour weeks for certainly not 2.5 times your stipend (even including their benefits), let alone full time student tuition.

They require me to devote at least 20 hours for RA (not TA). The rest of time of the week is for classes and self-study. So I will probably work + study more than 50 hours a week, even 60 hours since there are plenty of classes. I am thinking of turning down this offer.

You guys, so I really want to know how many hours per week you need to use for TA/RA since this information is important to me to decide whether or not to turn down the offer. But you are discussing diffirent things in this thread.

Plz, share your information. Thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssss

[will]

It seems there are few schools where the time commitment for assistantship is under 15 hours. 20 isn't exceedingly bad.

There's a lot more than 50-60 hours in a week.

[gatr1126]

UF would be one of them. 20K stipend only needs me to work 13.3 hours per week according to them. That just means the extra 154.7 can be spent worrying about qualifying exams, coursework, finding an advisor, research, and maybe, just maybe....sleep.

[dlenmn]

http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/hi ... table8.htm

[admissionprof]

Focusing on hours per week isn't realistic. Many institutions put down 20 hours a week for legal reasons (makes it half-time), but students don't actually work that many hours. Easy to check--ask some current graduate students how many hours they actually work as a TA. At many, one has a couple of three hour labs plus setup and grading, which is more like 10-12 hours/week.

[Benfit]

Focusing on hours per week isn't realistic. Many institutions put down 20 hours a week for legal reasons (makes it half-time), but students don't actually work that many hours. Easy to check--ask some current graduate students how many hours they actually work as a TA. At many, one has a couple of three hour labs plus setup and grading, which is more like 10-12 hours/week.

Well, My friend has been at this school for more than 4 years. He said that 20 is standard, sometimes TA takes students even more than 20 hours and the stipend is paid only for 20 hours. On the other hand, it is clearly stated in the offer letter "devote AT LEAST 20 hours".

[bestbearblackbear]

Do schools take the time needed to "re-learn" material into account when they list the number of hours...? Because I can imagine that labs at different school will either have material that a TA has not seen in awhile or, in some cases, at all.

[Benfit]

Do schools take the time needed to "re-learn" material into account when they list the number of hours...?

It seems like they don't. <delete.....it's too much>

[will]

If you feel taken advantage of, don't go. No one is holding a gun to your head.

[bestbearblackbear]

Thanks will, that's helpful.

[___]

You're getting a Ph.d. not a teaching certificate.

Aren't they the same thing?

[forecast8]

At the different schools I've talked to the story is suprisingly uniform. They want first year TAs to teach 6-8 hours of labs, spend 2 - 3 hours grading those labs and have 2 office hours each week. For TAs who don't speak english well enough to pass the speak test it is all grading. Most TAs I've talked to spend the 2 office hours almost exclusiely doing their own homework since few undergrads seek help.

Most schools want students in the first three semesters doing TA instead of RA. This is make sure the student can pass the comps. Grad students never spend a minute more on TAing than they need to, but every school will have horror stories of grad students who let their course work slide and failed out while spending 40+ hours a week on a really interesting RA.

[sltrukshan]

Focusing on hours per week isn't realistic. Many institutions put down 20 hours a week for legal reasons (makes it half-time), but students don't actually work that many hours. Easy to check--ask some current graduate students how many hours they actually work as a TA. At many, one has a couple of three hour labs plus setup and grading, which is more like 10-12 hours/week.

I think you are correct. I asked from one of my seniors at the U of Mississippi and he works in two lab classes (two hours each) and 3 office hours. That means 7 hours per week. But the agreement says that we should work 20 hours. I think they have included the time taken for grading.