PSA: Look for GSI/TA positions, make $$$ Forum

[cotiger]

Just had Berkeley's GSI (Graduate Student Instructor AKA TA) orientation on Friday, and there was a guy from the law school in there. GSIs get $8000/semester in tuition/fee remission, plus an $1850/mo stipend for 5 months. After taxes, the total comes to about $14,000 per semester. And that's for only about 12-15 hr/wk of work.

If you did that during 2L and 3L, that's like an extra $56,000 scholarship.

I think Statistics is the easiest department to grab, though this guy was doing it for Math. I don't know if other universities have this option too, but I thought I'd pass along the info.

[krads153]

Michigan does this too, except it's like 37k-40k a semester. They cover all of your law school tuition plus give like a 2k a month stipend.

I don't know how easy it is to get one of these positions though. For quant, I assume most schools usually want their PhDs to get the GSI programs (not random law students).

My friend at Michigan taught one class for media studies and got all law tuition covered plus 2k a month stipend. Probably easier to do something bullshit like media studies than to teach quant as a law student (unless you already have a PhD).

[jrthor10]

Mich also gives you back any scholarship money you have in living expenses. Basically get paid (potentially 30k+) a year to go to law school.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Yeah, it's going to depend on whether the department in question has enough of its own grad students to teach the classes. Where I went to grad school, the humanities types could often get positions teaching comp, because all the undergrads had to take it and the the faculty never want to teach it, so they needed a lot of grad instructors. (It will also depend on your qualifications, of course.) However, it often takes up more than 15-20 hours a week (which is why there have been efforts to unionize grad students at various places; the hours advertised/paid are often not the hours actually required). Also, most law schools don't allow their full-time law students to work during 1L (obviously people do, but if you're working for the same university you probably won't fly under the radar), and after 1L you're probably going to get a better return on legal internships than on TAing an unrelated subject (unless you're going for academia). Not saying it's never a good deal, just some things to keep in mind.

[worldtraveler]

I did this as a law student. You do make quite a bit but it's easily 20 or more hours a week. It can also be hard to have your teaching requirements avoid conflicts with law school classes.

I highly recommend but it's not something that you can count on while starting school.

[cotiger]

Michigan does this too, except it's like 37k-40k a semester. They cover all of your law school tuition plus give like a 2k a month stipend.

I don't know how easy it is to get one of these positions though. For quant, I assume most schools usually want their PhDs to get the GSI programs (not random law students).

My friend at Michigan taught one class for media studies and got all law tuition covered plus 2k a month stipend. Probably easier to do something bullshit like media studies than to teach quant as a law student (unless you already have a PhD).

Mich also gives you back any scholarship money you have in living expenses. Basically get paid (potentially 30k+) a year to go to law school.

Holy shit, Michigan. If you got a 90k scholarship, that would be free law school plus a $50k/yr stipend..

The difficulty of the department isn't really relevant to their willingness to appoint outsiders because you're just teaching intro courses. It's all about the GSI/grad student ratio. I think math/stat is pretty easy to get because so many undergrads have to take it, and they have relatively few grad students. All I did was major in econ, and I met several other people from outside the department. I imagine too that STEM grad students have more GSR opportunities than the humanities, which would further open up those departments to outside GSIs.

I did this as a law student. You do make quite a bit but it's easily 20 or more hours a week. It can also be hard to have your teaching requirements avoid conflicts with law school classes.

I highly recommend but it's not something that you can count on while starting school.

What department did you do it in? The guy who led our orientation said that he works about 15 hr/wk for 3 sections (tho of course midterm/final time is more), and his time breakdown sounded reasonable. I got a 50% appointment for just 2, so that'd scale to about 12 hr. Maybe humanities/social sciences require more grading time?

[worldtraveler]

I was in a humanities field, so I had a lot of papers to grade.

But teaching 3 sections a week for only 15 hours sounds like that guy is either incredibly efficient or he is somehow getting by without doing much prep. Maybe if he's teaching a section where students just come and ask questions about their homework and he doesn't do much grading, that would work.

At Berkeley, legal studies hires law students but there are few openings. Poli sci also does. But where you really want to look, outside the STEM field, is in international and area studies. It's the largest major for undergrads but they have none of their own graduate students.

[cron1834]

I do this at Mich. Reggie Miller is correct about the details, it's an amazing deal. The jobs don't grow on trees though, so while this should definitely give Mich and arguably Berk a little bump in your admissions decision if you're qualified, you should also be realistic.

[Jay2716]

How do you find out about these things?

[Veil of Ignorance]

I want to revive this thread to see if anyone else has anecdotes of this occurring at Michigan/ Berkeley / other T14 schools. Is the deal at Michigan really that good?

[blueapple]

I want to revive this thread to see if anyone else has anecdotes of this occurring at Michigan/ Berkeley / other T14 schools. Is the deal at Michigan really that good?

Yes at Michigan. I have a lot of friends who did it in various departments for either 2L and 3L or just 3L.

It is a lot of work depending on what you end up teaching, especially because final papers/exams need to be graded (I think undergrads have a 3-day turnaround for grades or something crazy like that) while you're gearing up for your own finals.

[Earlskies]

I want to revive this thread to see if anyone else has anecdotes of this occurring at Michigan/ Berkeley / other T14 schools. Is the deal at Michigan really that good?

Yes at Michigan. I have a lot of friends who did it in various departments for either 2L and 3L or just 3L.

It is a lot of work depending on what you end up teaching, especially because final papers/exams need to be graded (I think undergrads have a 3-day turnaround for grades or something crazy like that) while you're gearing up for your own finals.

Did your friends have graduate degrees or experience teaching undergrads or anything of the sort? I'm trying to get a feel for what qualifies one to be a GSI.

[blueapple]

I want to revive this thread to see if anyone else has anecdotes of this occurring at Michigan/ Berkeley / other T14 schools. Is the deal at Michigan really that good?

Yes at Michigan. I have a lot of friends who did it in various departments for either 2L and 3L or just 3L.

It is a lot of work depending on what you end up teaching, especially because final papers/exams need to be graded (I think undergrads have a 3-day turnaround for grades or something crazy like that) while you're gearing up for your own finals.

Did your friends have graduate degrees or experience teaching undergrads or anything of the sort? I'm trying to get a feel for what qualifies one to be a GSI.

One had experience teaching high school and taught something similar to what he had taught then. The others had no teaching experience. None had graduate degrees. Qualifications differ between schools, departments, and specific courses. For example, I had a friend who taught an intro level communications class and she had zero background in comms.

[Earlskies]

Cools beans - thanks!

[chargers21]

I hope my school has something like this I have teaching experience and a fairly wide-ranging educational background