spectastic

With another record enrollment, I think the chemistry department is getting desperate. I got an email about a TAing position in general chemistry. I mean I hear about undergrad TAing in political science, but not in actual science. The wage is $10/hr, about the usual rate around here. My responsibilities include 1 hr recitation, 3 hr lab, 1 hr help session, 1 hr staff meeting. That doesn't sound like much, but I don't know if it's going to be way more hours than I anticipated, and whether it will be worth the experience (ie. help me much in grad school apps or jobs).

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btw. I'm taking only 9 credit hrs next semester; that's all I got left. I've never had an internship before. So on a side note, would it be a good idea to purposely leave one class out next semester to delay my graduation and try to find a Spring co-op, and graduate during the summer? I anticipate that summer class will be just 1 month long, and I might even be able to make an arrangement to take 1 month off my internship just so I can extend my internship into the summer. This way, I can be more marketable in the job market straight out of graduation, as a fall back if I don't get any good offers for a Masters (maybe phd).

sorry for the 2 posts in 1, but any answer is appreciated.

jayeyesee

I personally think TAing (as an undergrad) is worth the time and effort. Even if you have no interest in teaching, it won't hurt to try TAing at least once. You will more likely than not have to TA as a graduate student (at least twice) so why not take this opportunity and run with it? Especially when you are getting paid for it.

Assuming you have good time management skills, I would imagine a 9 credit load on top of TAing wouldn't be too difficult to manage so you may not even have to delay your graduation. I don't know how much TAing actually benefits your application but I was able to get a really good rec letter out of it so it can't hurt.

spectastic

I'm not worried about work load. Well yes, I'm a little worried about work load, considering I'll be worried more about grad school/job applications than school, probably. But my purpose in delaying graduation is to take the opportunity to find an internship and get a good perspective on things, as well as making myself more marketable to companies. I have heard mostly bad stories when it comes to post-graduation, so I can only hope for the best and expect the worst.

Also, I will probably have two undergraduate research positions while I'm TAing, which might be a prospect for my third LOR. But yea, I've jumped on that TA position and hope he likes me. And I hope this plan will leave enough time for me to develop my SOP , study for the GRE, all that fun stuff.

snarlatron

TA experience is a great start for your CV. My years gave solid teaching experience that was worth far more than what I was paid.

juillet

$10/hour, for 6 hours a week of work, is about $900 for 15 months of teaching. I was going to say that was too low but I just realized you were an undergrad. The in-class stuff is just part of the job; the other part is office hours, grading, creating assignments and exams if you have to, and fielding student questions either in person or via email. Yes, TAing is almost always more time than you anticipate. But it does look good on graduate school applications, and you will also probably be more competitive as a TA applicant yourself if you wanted to do TAing for extra compensation in grad school (should your program offer that).