Will being a TA look bad on my transcript?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hello everyone,

I’m struggling to decide what I should do with an open class I will have next year (junior year) and I was thinking about filling it with being a TA (lab aid) for my chemistry teacher; he promised us a good LoR for his lab aids if they needed one for college apps, and he also said he would be available for any kind of help we would need for AP Chem.

Also, I’m taking 5 AP classes next year and I could really use a sort of easy period. I hear that the AP Chem teacher sucks at my school and having easy access to help would probably be awesome. Regarding the letter of rec, I still don’t know what colleges I want to apply to and whether the admissions would even require one, but out of my 2 top dream schools I know one cares a lot about letters of recommendation, while UC Berkeley doesn’t at all, so I’m kind of conflicted at the moment.

So this all seems great, but I have been warned that being a TA looks pretty bad on transcripts, and I’m wondering to what extent this is true… :frowning: some people are telling me that I should go for it while others tell me not to. I’m realllly conflicted on what I should choose since I have to decide on my schedule for next year this week.

Will being a lab aid really be that detrimental to my transcript and applications? Should I just take a business class instead?

2

This really depends. There’s a huge difference between someone who is a TA for the front office and just delivers passes to students all day (which is a thing at my school) and a student who has to actually work with a class. If you’re actually helping with class and the teacher, there are a lot of good things that he can write in his rec. And extra help is always helpful - who knows, your future AP Chem teacher may not be too helpful and he may be able to help you out.

here’s the thing - you should try to get the strongest recs possible regardless of whether you take this TA position or not. No offense, but just b/c Berkeley doesn’t care about the recs doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care, either - That’s just one school. There’s a high chance that you’ll apply to a school that will at least consider your teacher recs.

I understand this. If you’re already looking at a pretty rigorous schedule, then being a TA wouldn’t be that detrimental. But it does depend on what AP classes you’re taking, too.

Although, I’ve never heard of a junior being a TA, to be honest - I usually only hear about seniors being TAs. I’m not sure if this really matters, though :stuck_out_tongue:

3

Thanks for your input! I appreciate it :slight_smile:

4

i can think of no reasons why the being a TA would hurt you.