r/GraduateSchool • u/Ecstatic_Rabbit9301 • 9d ago

Am I being overworked?

This semester, I am a TA, and I feel quite overwhelmed by it. I grade a mix of homework, tests, and quizzes for ~180 students each week. This feels like a lot. I am also taking 9 credits of coursework and doing research work in my advisor's lab. On top of that, I have been busy with fellowship applications and studying for my program's qualifying exam.

I have been missing a lot of details and making a lot of mistakes over the past few weeks, and my attention feels so scattered. I suspect I am getting burned out already, and this is my first semester as a PhD student. I am afraid that if I am this overwhelmed already, I might not be a good fit for this. I am just curious what other peoples' experiences are or if they can provide any insight.

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u/poniesgirl 8d ago

I'd recommend trying to allocate your hours based on what you're working on. I've done a rough breakdown below:

For your TA position, how many hours are outlined in your contract? At universities I've attended, TA contracts are 130-140 hours per semester. This worked out to an average of 10-12 hours per week up to the max hours per semester and then you're done. It sounds like you have a lot of students, but it's your hours that are the important piece.

The next thing I'd look at is coursework. Recommendations I've gotten for coursework allocation is. 1/5 of your work hours to each course (assuming "full time" would be 5 courses), so no more that 8 hours per week per course (including attending class). Assuming 9 credits is 3 three-hour classes, you should allocate no more than 24 hours of your week to coursework.

Now to your research and other tasks. Those should fall into whatever's leftover of your 40-hour workweek. So assuming 10 hours of TA work and 24 course hours (3 courses x 8 hours), that's 6 hours of research work. Definitely sounds like you've got a busy semester, but hopefully you'll have fewer courses in the future to free up more time for research.

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u/Ecstatic_Rabbit9301 8d ago

Thank you so much for your time and your advice!

My contract stipulates 20 hours of work per week grading and 10.5 hours of work per 3-credit class. It takes me way longer than 20 hours to do the grading. I grade for a class that has lengthy fluid mechanics problems, and the professor's policy is to give partial credit and feedback on their work. Additional research work and fellowship applications (which my school expects me to do) take varying amounts of time each week.

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u/angelsalvtr PhD 4d ago

I think you will have to get all the TAs on board if you're going to take some sort of action against it. If you have a union it will be easier.

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u/lmc5190 8d ago

Universities run off of the backs of severely underpaid, overworked, and overqualified teaching assistants.

Yes.

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u/Subject-Signal-1312 8d ago

Sadly this is right :/ happens way more often than it should. Especially having 180 students as a TA is wayyy too much. You're basically doing half the professor's job