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Teaching Assistantships

Graduate teaching assistantships (TAs) are available in most graduate departments and programs. In many departments, particularly in the humanities, they are the main source of funding for graduate school. But TAs are also a common funding mode in Mathematics, for example. A good guide is that programs that teach many undergraduate students (e.g. English, Psychology, Mathematics, Spanish) have many TAs who assist with that teaching.

A TA usually pays about the same stipend as an RA and typically requires about 20 hours of time commitment each week to teaching. Only some of these hours will be contact hours with students. The rest will be spent in preparation and grading. Some programs require one or more semesters' service as a TA. Teaching assistantships serve an important role in developing your communication, presentation and teaching skills that will be important in any career you pursue.

Therefore, if your field of graduate study is in the arts or humanities or is in an area that teaches many undergraduate students, you should make sure to inform the department of your interest in a Teaching Assistantship when you apply for admission. You may like to use the second part of each GradPortal tutorial example, which will show you how to identify the scholarly interests of the faculty and will help you to introduce yourself to faculty members in the programs to which you apply.

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