Becoming a TA
TA
Applications for Spring 2008 are now being accepted. See below for details.
The
deadline to apply for MS-TA fellowships and renewal is December 16, 2007.
Reference letters must be received by January 1, 2008.
See ‘Application’ section for details.
The
deadline to apply for Undergrad/MS/PhD grader applications is January 1, 2008.
See ‘Application’ section for details.
All
continuing undergrad/MS/PhD applicants MUST fill out the MICE application by January 1, 2008.
Information
- What is a TA?
In the CS department, the term "TA" refers to a Teaching
Assistant. Basically, this means a student who assists an
instructor in teaching a course. The duties of a TA vary, as described
below. A TA is not enrolled in the course that they are TA-ing for.
- Who can be a
TA?
Any qualified student, either graduate or undergraduate, can apply to
be a TA.
- What does
a TA do?
TA's are assigned to a particular course and are supervised directly
by the instructor of that course. Instructors are typically regular,
full-time faculty members in the CS department. There are also some adjunct
faculty who are invited to teach special
topics courses in their area(s) of expertise. Some advanced PhD
students also serve as instructors.
Courses are categorized as either:
- 1000-level: introductory courses,
predominantly taken by beginning undergraduate students
- 3000-level: intermediate courses,
predominantly taken by undergraduate CS majors; most of these courses
are core or track required courses
- 4000-level: advanced courses, taken
by advanced undergraduate CS majors as well as graduate students;
most of these are undergraduate track requirements or graduate core
or track requirements
- 6000-level: graduate courses, taken
primarily by advanced masters and PhD students
Please note that the different sections of
undergraduate thesis (3902) and tutorial in computer science (6900) do
not get assigned a TA, so please do not apply to those.
TA duties vary depending on the course level and the
instructor. Duties typically consist of one or more of the following tasks:
- grading homework
assignments
- proctoring exams
- grading exams
- offering one-on-one help
in office hours
- xeroxing materials for the class
- maintaining the course
grade book
- acting as a substitute lecturer
in case the instructor is ill or on travel
- holding recitations
- running labs
- attending lectures
A TA is expected to hold a total of 2-3 hours per week of
combined office, lab and/or recitation time. In addition, the TA may
perform any of the other duties, as listed above. Generally, a TA is
expected to work the equivalent of one day (8-10 hours) on average per week
for each TA unit .
A unit is loosely described as being a TA for 20-25 students (depending on
the course).
A TA is not expected to teach regular lectures, except in the
case where the instructor is ill or is traveling. In this case, the
instructor should provide the necessary curricular materials (e.g.,
handouts, slides, etc.) to the TA. Under normal circumstances, this
shouldn't happen more than twice in a term.
- How are TAs assigned?
All students interested in being a TA must
fill out an application. TAs are then assigned
based on the preferences
of the instructor. If the instructor does not specify any preference, then
several factors such as past TA experience at Columbia University and other
schools and letter grades in the course are considered. Assignments are
made by the TA czar. Although many classes have TAs assigned to them before
the start of the semester, some courses (especially introductory level)
will have additional TAs assigned during the first two weeks of classes.
- What kinds of
TA's are there?
There are several categories of TA's, depending on the standing of the
student acting as a TA and on the amount of compensation the student
receives. The categories are listed in the table below:
|
standing
|
category
|
Compensation
|
|
undergraduate
|
grader
|
$1300 per semester per unit
|
|
MS
|
grader
|
$1500 per semester per unit
|
|
fellowship
|
tuition (12 credits
for Spring 2008) plus stipend of $3,000
|
|
|
fellowship(half)
|
Tuition (5 credits
for Spring 2008) plus stipend of $3,000
|
|
PhD
|
grader
|
$2000 per semester per unit
|
|
fellowship
|
tuition plus PhD stipend per semester for 2 units
|
|
requirements
|
credit towards departmental support (tuition plus PhD stipend);
received when 2 required units are completed
|
·
Typically, incoming MS students new to Columbia are not
awarded MS-TA Fellowships. However, these students have the option to be MS-TA
Graders .
This provides the opportunity to get some experience TA-ing
in the department as well as working for a CS faculty member who will be
able to recommend you for a fellowship position in the following term.
- Special NOTE
for PhD students
For details regarding the PhD-TA requirement, see the PhD program documentation .
If you are interested in teaching to fulfill your
PhD-TA requirements, there are two options for doing so:
- Teaching (not TA-ing) a 1-credit section of coms-w3101 counts as 1
unit.
- Teaching (not TA-ing) a 3-credit course counts as 2 units
(typically coms-w1001, coms-w1003 or coms-w3133).
If you would like to be considered for one of these options,
please contact Prof. Tal Malkin
by email (tal [at] cs.columbia.edu ).
Application
Applying to
be a TA (undergrad/MS/PhD and grader/fellowship/requirements) is done
through the CS department's mice system.
- STEP 0: Open a mice account
Go to http://www.cs.columbia.edu/mice to open a mice account if
you don't already have one.
If you encounter problems opening an account, send an email to Lily Bao, lily
[at] cs.columbia.edu, (if you are a PhD student) or Remi Moss, remimoss [at] cs.columbia.edu, (if you are an MS student)
- STEP 1: Fill out TA application
Log into mice.
From the ‘TA’ drop down menu, select ‘TA Application’
If you
encounter problems filling out an application, send an email to:
- Lily Bao,
lily [at] cs.columbia.edu, (if you are a PhD student) or Remi Moss, remimoss [at] cs.columbia.edu (if you are an MS student) and cc to
Chris Murphy, tacoord [at]
cs.columbia.edu
- STEP 2: Update your SSN
in mice
Log into mice.
From the ‘Persons’ drop down menu, select ‘Edit Profile’ and update
your SSN.
(This information is for payment purposes only. You can fill out
this information after you are selected as a TA.)
- STEP 3:
MS-TA Fellowship
First-time Applicants
A small number of fellowships are offered to
distinguished master students, on a per-semester basis. Selected candidates
will exhibit excellent communication skills, leadership ability, and
experience in the topics of our 4000 level classes. Award recipients
are expected to carry out significant additional duties above and
beyond normal TA responsibilities, such as recitation leading,
increased student load, and class management.
Only currently enrolled masters students are eligible to apply. The
applicants must request two recommendation letters from a Columbia
Computer Science faculty member or instructor. The application in MICE must be completed and recommendation letters should be
sent by Jan. 1st, 2008
to: Prof. Tal Malkin (tal [at] cs.columbia.edu).
MS-TA Fellowship Renewal
Applicants
Students who hold MS-TA fellowships for the current semester may apply
for a continuation of their fellowship for subsequent semester(s), as
long as they will retain full-time student status and have not
completed the 30 credits required for their degree.
The renewal applicants should ask the instructors whom they are TAing to submit a recommendation letter to Prof. Tal Malkin (tal [at] cs.columbia.edu)
by Jan. 1st, 2008
.
Be aware
that most TA assignments are made on the basis of faculty requests, because
faculty prefers to work with students they know and who have already
successfully completed their course. In addition to you specifying a
preference for a particular course, if the instructor wants you, they must
also enter their request in the on-line system (they should know how to do
this).
Questions?
Problems?
For all
other questions and problems, contact:
- the student TA Coordinator:
Chris Murphy, tacoord
[at] cs.columbia.edu
or
- the faculty TA czar: Prof. Tal Malkin, tal [at] cs.columbia.edu
|