Would it be possible for me to gain a job as a teaching assistant if I were to complete MOOC courses in my field of study (Harvard’s CS50, MIT, Berkeley etc.) and gain certifications, as well as complete projects and publications related to my study before going into Uni? That’s kind of my plan right now as I want to get a head start on gaining experience in university. (By the way, I’m vastly interested in Computer Science). So, would this be a good idea?
Highly unlikely. TAs are mostly grad students at schools that have graduate programs. That is how PhD students fund their years of study & research. Some schools have upperclassman occasionally act in that role.
Why do you want TA experience? Research experience is more valuable when applying to grad schools.
Even for the undergrad positions (at my school those are usually called LAs or IAs to distinguish from TAs) the requirement is usually that you’ve taken the class before and gotten a good grade. Can’t teach something you’ve never learned, or that you learned a different way than your school teaches it.
Why don’t you take AP Computer Science? You could do research and try to aim for Intel Science Fair. By the way, do you have a plan for computer science specialization (like cybersecurity, data science, machine learning, or web design)?
It is fine to do those things for your own benefit, but no professor is going to have you be a teaching assistant as a freshman because of those things…they will want people who did well in their class that they taught.
@bodangles Another reason why I asked this was because I’m looking at job postings for student TAs at UMN, the school I want to attend, and the description says on rare chances they take in qualified freshman students to assist, so I’m hoping with my idea that there’s hope.
You could do that.
@Mahindra I actually enrolled into AP Computer Science Principles for next year 
My school is small and recently started implementing technology courses in our school so we don’t have Computer Science A and B yet. And as for interest, I can’t pinpoint one because I’m interested in all of them, be it cybersecurity, data science, machine learning, and web design. I like em all, but my career goals are to become a software engineer at google in the end, which I’m working hard at at the moment.
@theabstracture Oh cool.
And in addition I’m also working on programming projects and apps for my own personal use, but I’m hoping it’ll help great in my resume. I’m wanting to get a lot of experience to achieve my goal of working at Google
@theabstracture For python do you use Michigan’s Python for Everybody MOOC or codecademy? Or do you use a specific book?
My son took 2 years of CS in HS (C++, Java) and despite this his tech school made him take their intro course, in Python. While Python was new and his schools method of teaching the intro may not be identical to other schools, he was unofficially tutoring classmates who asked. He was often “paid” in ice cream and pizza At the end of the 1st semester the school did consider him for 2nd semester, as an official tutor at a set time and place for same class he completed in Python. That said, the actual TA for the class is a grad student in a college that has grad programs, never an undergrad, but you can get work experience in your field, as an undergrad. Just not necessarily the 1st semester, no should you. Focus on acclimating to college (socially and academically) 1st semester. While you may like and be good at programming, you will likely have mostly other types of courses and have to do well in most of them to succeed. Will likely be much more work than HS, focus on that adjustment.
This is a school specific thing, as each school handles their TA’s differently.
I attend an LAC (no grad students in CS) and we have both Student Graders, who grade the homework and/or labs for the class, and Lab Assistants, who help answer questions on the code during lab. At my school, graders are primarily upperclassmen, but I started as a grader spring of my freshman year, grading Data Structures, of which I was one of 3 freshmen to take in the fall. I graded for a different professor than I had, because she wasn’t teaching Data Structures that semester. I will have since graded Data Structures 5 times, counting this upcoming fall semester, for 3 different professors, 2 of which I’ve never taken. I also grading Intro CS one semester, which I never took at my university, for a professor I hadn’t yet taken a class with. That was a little difficult, but I managed. I’ve also been asked to be a Lab Assistant for various courses over the years (I think starting sophomore year), but I always had schedule conflicts that prevented me from doing so.
@Mahindra I used many resources, mainly online, to learn Python, though everyone has a different way of learning programming languages. But what I did though was implement the basic syntax repetitively until I remembered it by going through a mix of tutorials such as Code Academy, Automate The Boring Stuff, Learn Python The Hard Way etc. My favorite though has to be the Google for Education’s tutorial on Python, as it is quick (if you skip the lectures) but also intensive and more deep on the concepts.
After I learned all of the syntax and basics, I bought myself Python Playground, which is a Starch Press book that guides you in building different projects in Python for fun in order to explore what you can do with it. It’s a pretty advanced book, though, so be sure to really get a hold of the basics.
TL;DR: Go through hundreds of syntax tutorials, and grab a book on projects in Python
Thx
This would be an incredibly rare circumstance. UMN does include information on their website:
I would imagine that in order to TA the class as a freshman, you’d need to have taken that same course or an equivalent course before, probably have taken the next course or two in the sequence after that, done really well in all of them, and have some significant outstanding experience that makes you highly qualified. And you’d probably need to demonstrate why you are a better choice than a junior or senior.
Getting research experience as a freshman would be both much easier and much more useful.
OP may need some perspective on what makes a student able to lead others, as a TA. It’s not online classes and some self directed projects. Get a chance to experience college, before assuming that, because you know some subject material, you can lead courses. You haven’t even been in the setting, yet.
^It’s likely Freshmen would have taken that exact course through PSEO and received an A; they’d still need to prove why they’re at explaining and making things clear than an older, more experienced student.
Maybe second semester freshman. At D’s school they used students who took classes and got As ad Supplemental instruction assistants or in tutoring center. Supplemental instruction students had to attend regular class and then held a optional session sometime that week to help reinforce concepts to the students.
Other options for non-grad students were as graders. Again, these were mostly people who had taken class, usually under the specific professor that then might ask you do grade in another semester.
I think you’ll have to ask at your school and in your department.