This website contains information for current and prospective graduate teaching assistants in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
More specifically, it contains an explanation of the TA offer process, departmental rules and information, teaching tips, links to other related websites, and additional information that TAs will find useful.
Prospective TAs should find the FAQ and TA offer process and criteria sections most useful.
Current TAs are responsible for all the information on this website. Most particularly, they should be familiar with the rules and procedures mentioned in the department rules page, and the ethical issues for TAs page, and should be aware of the rules in the other links. TAs will, we hope, find the teaching information and resources in the teaching tips, the online information on course management software, etc., and in other sections helpful in their TA work.
This site was put together with the help of the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI) (formerly the Center for Teaching and Learning), and many of the teaching tips pages are based on CEI resources.
2. TA offer process and criteriaMany questions TA applicants have involve how TA offers are made, and what criteria are used to determine who receives a TA offer. This section provides some details on these issues.
There are two sections on teaching assistantships in the Graduate Student Handbook.
The computer science TA website contains a variety of information for CS TAs and TA applicants. The FAQ section in this handbook and TA Announcements page are the two links most useful to people curious about the how to apply for a TA position, and what their chances of getting one are.
It is department policy to save at least eight appointments for new students and make the balance from continuing students. New student appointments are made as part of the admissions process for Ph.D. admits, based on merit. Note: eight is a minimum; in practice, the specific number of new students we appoint depends on a number of factors including how plentiful we expect TA positions to be, how many exceptional students apply, and how many students accept our offers.
Since new offers are made as part of the admissions process for Ph.D. admits, which new students receive a TA offer is decided as part of the application review process. This decision is made by the Graduate Admissions Chair, in consultation with the graduate admissions committee and the TA Supervisor. The criteria used to determine which applicants get offers are the usual ones for admission (academic record, the potential for graduate work, etc.); however, TA potential is also a consideration.
M.S. students who do not receive offers during admission are welcome to apply for any open positions when they arrive in fall. A few TA positions may be open at the beginning of fall classes; however, students arriving without support should realize that the chance of getting a TA when they arrive here in fall is small. Most students who arrive here without support are eventually able to find support, if not through a TA then through an RA or through other forms of support. However, prospective students should neither be overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic in this regard.
Students who currently have a TA have a good, but not guaranteed, chance of getting an offer for the next semester. This decision is based on a number of criteria (see the criteria section below); this section discusses a few additional considerations.
It is department policy that students are eligible for a total of six semesters of TA support. This does not include any summer TA support, and is irrespective of the percentage of appointment; moreover, the department can provide exemptions to this rule based on departmental need. Note that the need is "departmental" (and so could cover, for example, rehiring an especially strong TA or a TA for a hard-to-fill TA position), but it is not the need of the student nor of their faculty advisor.
Having TAed less than three aggregate years does not guarantee a student continuing support, as a number of criteria are considered when TAs are appointed or reappointed. Long-term TAs should be particularly careful that they are making good degree progress, they can TA a number of different courses, and that their TA work is of exceptional quality.
Students who come in with TA support as part of the admission process are guaranteed an assistantship for one or two years. However, students with a one-year guarantee are almost always given a second year of support; and students are often given a third year of TA support if needed. Such students should make good degree process, do well in their TA work, and be able and willing to take on more advanced TA assignments (e.g., for advanced classes) in their second or third year. Note that second or third year support is not guaranteed in cases of seriously poor degree progress or TA performance.
Most TA offers are 50% offers. Such offers include full (or near full) tuition and health coverage benefits. A student with a 50% offer is usually assigned to work an average of 20 hours per week on one class; however, in some cases, the department splits the appointment between 2 classes.
Some TA offers are 25%. In this case the offer is for an average of 10 hours per week, and the offer includes about half the tuition and health care costs, with the student being responsible for the remainder. On rare occasion offers are for other percentages, such as 12.5%.
The department prefers to make 50% appointments with each TA assigned to a single class. However, due to our enrollment patterns, we have recently been forced to make more split 50% appointments, as well as more 25% appointments.
The Computer Science & Engineering department supports a number of graduate students through TA appointments, and professors' research grants support many more. However, we are not able to support all computer science graduate students. Students should realize TA appointments are highly competitive, and we get many more applicants than the number of available positions. Some ramifications of this are:
Each semester we ask whether faculty have any special requests for TAs. Here are guidelines on this:
Students in the computer science Ph.D. and M.S. programs, the data sciences M.S. program, and in graduate programs related to computer science are welcome to apply for TA positions (however, by department rules, M.C.S. students are not eligible for TA positions in the Computer Science & Engineering department).
The primary criteria for getting or continuing a TA offer are communication skills, teaching ability and quality of past TA performance, how well an applicant's area of interest matches with department TA needs, and whether the student is in the PhD program. These, as well as other, secondary, criteria, are explained below:
It is department policy to make summer appointments from among students who had an appointment in one of the semesters of the previous academic year. However, we employ only about a half dozen graduate TAs each summer, so these positions are quite competitive. Criteria that are weighed more heavily for summer appointments include whether the applicant was a new TA that came in with support the previous fall (the rationale here is that these students have some priority since they will have fewer opportunities for other support than students who have been here longer), quality of TA work, and whether a student has prior TA experience in the specific classes being offered that summer.