To Ivy, or not to Ivy

When I was ABD I was also what my university called a Teaching Fellow, and I was actually teaching my own courses (not assisting). I also was volunteering for overloads, meaning doing extra courses and summer courses.

For me it was a fun, albeit pretty low-paying, job. Thanks to sitting on a certain committee for a bit, I happen to know the low-paying part also made it a screaming good deal for the university, meaning they were making way more in the fees for the credits for the students I was teaching than they paid me, even including my by-then nominal tuition and health benefits (but there were no retirement benefits) in my total compensation.

Anyway, the truth is that the really significant cost to all this was opportunity cost–a college graduate that far out of college could be making a lot more than I was in most career tracks. But I wasn’t out of pocket, and my college loans were being deferred without accruing interest, so, it could be worse.

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