Application 2023-24 for 2024-25:
Please be sure to read all questions carefully and fill out the application completely using CATS.
Applications must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, April 25, 2024. It will not be possible to enter late submissions.
We ask that English students apply to at least seven (7) courses per term. If possible, try not to sign up only for small courses. Estimated courses sizes are listed next to each course title in the course listings Small= 0-2 sections; Medium=3-4 sections; Large=5+ sections].
If you have never taught before, or if you have not taught for a particular professor or course, we strongly urge you to contact instructors directly to offer information about yourself and your experience, and your interest in teaching for particular courses.
If there is anything you would like us to know, please feel free to include this information in your application in the space provided. We will do our best to match your wishes with those of the faculty and hope to be able to make assignments as quickly as possible. Since this is a three-tiered process– reviewing your wish list, reviewing the faculty’s wish list, and then merging the two– we appreciate your patience while we are determining assignments.
Online Sign-Up Process Using CATS:
Please be sure to fill in all of the information carefully and be sure you have prioritized at least seven courses per term. Please note that due to the unevenness of enrollments, there is no guarantee that you will be assigned more than one section in any given course, nor that you will be assigned to one of your top choices, so be sure to leave yourself other options. Note: Although we will make every effort to prevent this, it is possible that a TF may be assigned one section in each of two courses in a given term.
Some Gen Ed courses taught by English faculty will be included in the list of courses you may sign up to teach for- be sure to look for GENED (and HUM 10a/HUM 10b) in CATS. You are encouraged to sign up for these courses, but assignments will be contingent upon the final approval of Gen Ed/HUM 10 and the course head. Please feel free to sign up for other courses outside the department as well.
New Courses: Please note that new courses are generally not pre-allocated sections, so most will be listed in CATS as "open for waitlist applications"-- please feel free to sign up for waitlist courses (in addition to your other seven courses per term, if you are an English student), as sections may become available. (It is also possible that repeating courses may be listed as waitlist only as well.)
Assignments:
It is a fact of life at Harvard, due to the unpredictability of course enrollments that assignments to English 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 in practice be necessary to assign you to another course (preferably from among your other choices*). If, under exceptional circumstances, we have to reassign you, we will try whenever possible to give you two sections of one course. When the final enrollments become known after each term's course registration period, the Graduate Office will make such changes as become necessary. (Note: With pre-term registration, we will now have more certainty about Fall '24 assignments; Spring '25 assignments will carry less certainty until the spring registration period in November is completed.) Please remember: no appointment is official until it is cleared by the Director of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Program Administrator, and the Office of Undergraduate Education; sections cannot be assigned independently by instructors.
(*It is for this reason that it is essential to sign up for only those courses you are willing/able to teach, and that you try to include medium or large courses each term, if possible.)
In order to keep within the FAS budget, we must observe the following rules:
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Generally, courses with fewer than 21 officially enrolled FAS students will not be assigned sections, although in some cases, one section may be assigned.
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Sections in most discussion-based courses in the humanities and social sciences should average 18 students. This is not a cap on section size—it is an average. Some individual courses will inevitably have sections of 21 or 22 students. It is also possible that some courses officially designated as “writing intensive” may be allowed somewhat smaller sections.
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No courses with fewer than 100 students (5 sections) may have a Head Teaching Fellow. If, therefore, a professor asks you to be Head TF, the appointment is contingent upon an enrollment of at least 100 (and you will not be compensated for work done prior to an official appointment as Head TF.)
We try to section conservatively so as to avoid too many last minute changes, and we work hard to place everyone in teaching positions. This cautious policy means that some of you, especially in later G-years, may be placed on “standby” and some G5+ TFs may not get full assignments (2 sections per term) for the year. If you are placed on standby, you will ordinarily be the first, or, perhaps in larger courses, among the first, to be considered for a position if the enrollment is large enough. For some courses without sufficient pre-allocated sections, G3/G4 priority students may be assigned one or two "TBD" sections as placeholders to ensure full pay until official enrollments are determined.
Note: Should you be assigned to a course outside the English Dept., 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:
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GSAS Teaching Fellows: 3rd-4th year students (English students will ordinarily be given first priority.)
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GSAS Teaching Fellows: 5th–6th year students (English students will ordinarily be given priority.)
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GSAS Teaching Fellows: G7+ students who have not reached the 16/5 limit (English students will ordinarily be given priority.)
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GSAS Teaching Fellows: G7+ students who have reached the 16/5 limit (English students will ordinarily be given priority.)
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Students from other Harvard Faculties
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Teaching Assistants with a recent Harvard Ph.D.
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Teaching Assistants with no Harvard affiliation
Tutorials:
The Junior and Senior Tutorial (ENG 98r and ENG 99r) application and assignment process is handled through the Undergraduate Office. However, we are asking rising G3+ students who are interested in teaching a Senior Tutorial to list the tutorial among their preferences in CATS (in addition to the 7 courses per term required). Please note that this does not replace the application process required by the Undergraduate Office; rather, it will simply give us an indication of your interest and level of preference. For more information about the tutorial application process, please contact Lauren Bimmler at lbimmler@fas.harvard.edu/ 617-495-4252.
Annual Teaching Limit:
TFs may teach a maximum of 3/5 each term (or an average of 3/5 over the year, i.e., 2/5 in the fall and 4/5 in the spring). It is the responsibility of the TFs to keep track of their teaching load, especially when teaching for more than one department.
One section = 1/5 = 0.2 FTE; One junior (group) tutorial = 2/5 = 0.4FTE; One senior tutorial = 1/15 = 0.667 FTE; Head TF = 1/5= 0.2FTE
International students, please note: “Assuming no other work commitments, and consistent with visa limitations, international students may be hired to teach three standard sections, as long as at least two of the sections are in the same course.”
TF Career Teaching Limit:
If you have been teaching for more than four years, you should check with Laura Pascale in the Teaching Fellow Office (pascale@fas.harvard.edu/617-495-5396) to see that you still have teaching eligibility without needing an exception. If you have taught up to or over 16/5 after four years of teaching, you will have to get an exception before an appointment can be approved. You will need to write a letter, endorsed by your advisor, addressed to Bob Coughlin, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, and send it directly to Laura Pascale with a cc to Gwen Urdang-Brown, requesting an exception, stating that teaching will not impede progress toward your degree, and listing your anticipated date of degree. Reminder: if you have taught more than 16/5, even if you have an exception, your status will generally be lower on the priority list than those who have not yet reached their 16/5 teaching limit.
For more information about Teaching Fellowships, please visit the GSAS Teaching Fellowships page.
Classifications:
Teaching Fellow
If you are a registered graduate student at Harvard, you should apply as a Teaching Fellow.
Teaching Assistant
Teaching Assistants do the same kinds of supervised instruction as teaching fellows, but a) they are not enrolled as candidates for an advanced degree at Harvard or b) they have already received the Ph.D. from Harvard. Appointments are made annually, are effective only during the term of teaching, are generally part-time, and are ordinarily limited to 4 academic years. Teaching Assistant appointments can be made only after the pool of qualified GSAS and other Harvard students has been exhausted. Therefore, TA appointments will generally not be made in advance of the first couple of weeks of each semester.