Students will use the Centralized Application for Teaching Sections (CATS) tool to record their teaching preferences for academic year.
Courses in General Education taught by Government faculty can be found by searching the Gen Ed in CATS.
Instructors will be sent a list of interested grad students which they will return identifying those individuals to assign to available sections. Ordinarily, new courses will not receive an early TF allocation due to the absence of enrollment history. Once instructors have notified the Graduate Office of their TF preferences, we will notify students of these potential teaching assignments.
Online Sign-Up Process Using CATS:
Please be sure to fill in all of the information carefully and be sure to have prioritized several courses per term. Please note that due to the unevenness of enrollments, there is no guarantee that students will be assigned to one of their top choices, so be sure to indicate other options.
Assignments:
Due to the unpredictability of course enrollments, assignments to Government department courses must be tentative, depending upon final enrollment figures. Even when a course has been pre-allocated a certain number of sections, if that course has an unexpectedly low enrollment, it may be necessary to assign students to another course. Fall 2022 course registration deadline is Thursday, August 25. Once final enrollments become known, the Graduate Office will make such changes as become necessary.
Due to the conservative number of early sections, some students will hold a “TBD” appointment. This will serve as a placeholder while we wait on final enrollment data and it ensures you receive your first payment on time. TBD appointments will be converted to two sections of a course once enrollment data and section allocations are reconciled (soon after August 25).
In order to keep within the FAS budget, we must observe the following rules:
Generally, courses with fewer than 18 officially enrolled FAS students will not be assigned sections, although in some cases, one section may be assigned. Sections in most discussion-based courses in the social sciences should average 18 students. This is not a cap on section size—it is an average. Section size for methods courses is set at 15.
A few courses will be allocated a Head TF. No courses with fewer than 100 students may have a Head Teaching Fellow.
The early section allocation provided by FAS is a conservative estimate based on past enrollment history. The Department will work to place everyone in teaching positions. This cautious policy means that those students that do not hold guaranteed teaching may be placed on “standby” and some may not get full assignments (2 sections per term) for the year.
Should you be assigned to a course outside the Government, you will need to contact that department and complete whatever paperwork is required in order to be paid.
Priority List for Assignment of Teaching Staff:
- GSAS Teaching Fellows: students that hold guaranteed teaching, as part of your financial aid package, in 2021-22.
- GSAS Teaching Fellows: students G3+ who do not hold guaranteed teaching.
- GSAS Teaching Fellows: G7+ students who have not reached the 16/5 career limit.
- GSAS Teaching Fellows: G7+ students who have reached the 16/5 limit.
- Teaching Assistants with a recent Harvard Ph.D.
- Students from other Harvard School
- Teaching Assistants with no Harvard affiliation
How To Get Paid
Once you have been offered a teaching appointment, you must download, print, and complete the forms listed below. Questions concerning teaching policies and payroll procedures should be directed to Gov’s Academic Administration at aaagov@fas.harvard.edu.
Senior Thesis Reading:
Government graduate students who serve as Teaching Fellows will be required to read and grade Senior Theses as part of their teaching responsibilities. Please contact the Undergraduate Office, at 495-3249, for additional information.