GTA Preferences

TA preferences are a part of the system used by our Graduate Coordinator to assist with assigning graduate TAs to appropriate courses. Generally, approximately a month before the beginning of GTA assignments you will receive an email with a link to enter your preferences for individual GTAs with regards to your courses. GTA assignments begin the 16th of September, December, March, and June, so the emails will generally arrive around the 16th of August, November, February, and May. You can find details on entering these preferences in the following sections.

The Preference System

The TA preference entry system is still under development. It will have the following components.

  • A method to select the course for which you’re assigning preferences
  • A list of available graduate TAs
  • What the potential GTA’s class preferences are
  • A method of entering a preference for each potential GTA
    • Prefer
    • Neutral
    • Disfavor

The Graduate Coordinator has informed us that ideally you will select prefer for approximately 2 GTAs per 30 enrolled students. Since he assigns a .25 GTA per ever 30 students or a .49 GTA per every 60, this gives him a good chance of matching at least one of your choices.

GTA Perspective

The Grad Coordinator receives information from tenure track faculty about which graduate students are going to be TAs, RAs, or be without funding. Those who are given TA positions will automatically be in the preference system. Those without funding will also be in the system, but will be marked as waitlist or similar.

GTAs with funding

These are GTAs whose funding is already guaranteed, either out of department funding or through individual research groups. Since they’re already guaranteed positions, these students will take preference when the Grad Coordinator assigns TAs to courses.

Unfunded Graduate Students seeking TA-ships

Generally 70-90 students apply for about 50-60 positions. These students know the best way to get a TA position is to have an instructor prefer them. These students may contact you to request a preference, at which point you might like to ask about their qualifications. That being said, entering a preference for a GTA in the system is not a guarantee due to the complexity of the assignment process and the need to account for PhD vs. MS, students close to graduation vs. new students, students making good academic progress vs. those who are stagnating, etc…

GTA Assignments

After preferences have been entered, the Graduate Coordinator will go through the process of assigning the TAs and will then email a preliminary assignments list to the faculty listserve). It is not yet time to email the GTAs, but this is the chance to check the GTA assignments for issues, such as…

  • Incorrect students : GTA FTE ratio
    The Graduate Coordinator attempts to stay close to the following Student:GTA FTE ratio
    • 30 students : 0.25 FTE GTA
    • 60 students : 0.49 FTE GTA
  • Disfavored GTAs ending up in the wrong class

This is also the time you might speak with other faculty to check about assignment swaps.

Finally, after changes have been made, the Grad Coordinator will send emails individually to the GTAs and CC the course instructor with final assignments. Remember, the assignments actually begin on the 16th of September, December, March, and June. As soon as the assignment begins you can begin working with your GTAs.

Notes

  • Assignments are made manually by the Graduate Coordinator, but he does reference the system-acquired information when making decisions.
  • Disfavors are taken very seriously when making assignments, so please do not overuse them.
  • There is a possibility of looking at multiple-term appointments in the future.
  • It is difficult to obtain background information on TAs. If they ask you for a preference, feel free to query them on their background. Otherwise you might ask the Graduate Coordinator for this information to assist in making your decisions. Other Instructors can also be a reference - you might ask on Teams if anyone has useful information.
  • Links to other TA Reference Docs