Teaching Assistantships

Although serving as a teaching assistant is not a graduate degree requirement, most graduate students in our department will serve as teaching assistants in lab and recitation sections in their first two years in the program. Incoming graduate students are given special TA training upon entering the program to enable them to be effective teachers. International students must pass a series of written and spoken English language tests before they are eligible to teach.

Most incoming graduate students will in their first semester instruct two laboratory sections of general chemistry (three hours each) and a one hour recitation for each laboratory section. Graduate students specializing in organic or biochemistry will often teach an organic laboratory section which meets twice a week for a total of six hours.