<p>Can someone break down what TA, RA, fellowships are? </p>
<p>Are people funded through Teacher and research assistantships or are those just like a regular job?</p>
<p>If you get an RA position, do you work on your own research?</p>
<p>All of this confuses me, but I haven't done much research on the funding areas of grad school yet.</p>
<p>TA is a Teaching Assistantship. Someone with a TA appointment works (usually) with their professor to assist in teaching functions of academia - leading discussion groups/labs, grading papers, etc. More advanced students on TAships may teach classes on their own, under their professor’s guidance.</p>
<p>RA is a Research Assistantship. Someone with an RA appointment works (usually) with their professor to assist in his or her research program - with a wide array of potential functions that are as varied as the fields of academia. If you do an RA, you do not work on your own research - your professor is paying you to do work for him. Of course, that may lead to spinning something off that will become your research direction.</p>
<p>TA and RA appointments generally include a waiver of tuition and fees and a modest living stipend. The amount waived and the amount of the stipend vary, but a full-time (20-hour) assistantship should result in a nearly-complete waiver.</p>
<p>If you are in a dept. with a lot of stock underclassman courses (such as English Comp or Spanish 101) you may well be an instructor independent of any prof, but still subject to dept. guidelines.</p>
<p>Some positions have perks beyond tuition remission and a stipend such as health insurance or an office.</p>
<p>Hey polarscribe. So, by “that may lead to spinning something off that will become your research direction.” Does that mean the 1st year or so you’re in grad school, you don’t really know what research you will be doing?</p>
<p>It sounds like RA and fellowships are the best unless you like to teach/grade papers. </p>
<p>If you do get a TA assistantship, does that cover all the tuition and provide enough money to live?</p>
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<p>Depends on what your interests are and your level of preparation. But in general, yes, the first year (or more) of graduate school is about figuring out your research questions and methodologies, before embarking on an actual study.</p>
<p>You should have a general direction in mind before applying, but defining the specific question and the ways of going about studying it… you’ll need to learn how to do that before you do it!</p>
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<p>That statement does not reflect how things work in the sciences. In my field, physics, graduate students and their advisors work together as a team on research projects. Often the advisor, a professor, generates ideas, writes grant proposals, and manages his or her research group. The graduate students perform experiments, do calculations, and analyze results under the supervision of their advisor. As a grad student gains experience, he or she contributes more ideas to the research project. Since they work together as a team, there is little or no distinction between the graduate student’s research and the professor’s research. A graduate student supported with an RA is paid to do the research that ultimately becomes the basis of his or her dissertation.</p>
<p>Oh sorry, I forgot to mention that I am an engineering major.</p>
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Depends on what science you’re talking about.</p>
<p>You cannot count on getting a research assistantship that pays you to do the research you’re going to end up doing your thesis/dissertation on. It might happen. But the professor is ultimately paying you to do something that connects with his research needs. That may or may not be completely congruent with the direction of your research.</p>
<p>Both of us made statements that are likely overbroad. :)</p>
<p>I think it’s less field dependent than it is department/program dependent, and dependent on your advisor. In my lab I do work on projects with my adviser, but I do my own research that is often a subset of or related to my adviser’s research. He takes into account my ideas and contributions. It is true that in my first and second year I had less autonomy, though.</p>
<p>Also, many a grad student who wants to finish more quickly does their dissertation on the work that they are getting paid to do. The key is to join a lab who does work that is very related or parallel to yours, instead of trying to pigeonhole yourself into a lab that does things very different from your research interests. For instance, I can choose to do my own study if I want to - collecting my own data and reinventing the wheel - but I would extend my time in graduate school by another 2-3 years if I chose that.</p>
<p>In any case, TA and RA were explained pretty well already. Sometimes if you are an RA you can use that opportunity to work on your own research - it depends on your adviser and what you consider “your own” to mean, as well as how flexible you are about your own interests.</p>
<p>A fellowship is funding that you get simply for being a graduate student. You don’t have to do any contracted teaching or research for a professor. Fellowships are awesome because they give you the opportunity to do your own work without disturbance, if you so choose. I’m on a fellowship myself and this year, I chose not to do any TAing so that I can focus on my dissertation.</p>
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To expand on what others have said, it depends a lot on your individual circumstances. In my experience, programs generally expect you to spend your first year or two taking classes, assisting with research or teaching, scoping out the field, and deciding on your research topic, all before you actually do any real thesis work. In some cases this is formalized - at my school you have to get your thesis topic approved by your committee, which cannot happen until at least your third semester, and working on it before then is a big risk! Realize also that as an engineering student you will probably need funding for materials, and that may take some time to materialize.</p>
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In terms of prestige and contribution to your research, fellowship > RA > TA. That having been said, if you aspire to academia it is generally a good idea to TA for a year, and some schools will require it as part of getting the PhD. Also, remember that all of this is competitive - even if you were top dog at your old school, odds are decent that you will be middling or even struggling at your grad program, so a TA might be the best you can get!!</p>
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In engineering, generally yes on both counts. Funding details usually vary by department, but engineering usually has enough money to do it right. In the arts and humanities it is not uncommon to get partial tuition waivers, especially at public schools where they may only waive the in-state amount. And bear in mind that “enough to live” does not usually equate to “above the poverty line” - $20k a year right now for a first year TA is probably pretty generous!</p>
<p>I think the overlap between your RA responsibilities and your thesis might also matter a bit upon the costs of operating the things you do in your lab. If it’s relatively inexpensive to perform research in your field, then no problem. </p>
<p>I think RA > TA is also something that can vary. I know in my school TA assignments are generally given to students that are in labs with…uhh…more financial difficulties than others. If you’re on a fellowship then you never need to TA if you don’t want to, but I also have friends in research groups that are research very hot topics with more than enough funding that haven’t had to TA yet, while my group has had all of us TA at least one term every year.</p>