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Michigan State University

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Some exploitative practices - Graduate Teaching Assistant Michigan State University Employee Review

3.0
Apr 1, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you're actually able to get the Graduate Teaching Assistant title, the benefits are extremely good for students and I would highly recommend it, especially if you can work with a professor you gel with.

Cons

Some departments will employ both graduate and undergraduate students as "Learning Assistants", which have similar duties to Teaching assistant but who get paid less than 20% of the TA counterparts after the consider benefits. It's essentially a grift that they do because they can get away with it. I was even asked to LA for a class I had TAed for in a previous semester. When I refused, they made me a TA immediately. That made it clear to me that they were just trying to take as much advantage of me as possible, and when it became clear that I wasn't going to do the work for so little they capitulated right away because they wanted me to help teach the class.

Explore other reviews about Michigan State University

5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Mostly fair bargaining agreements, strong benefits

Cons

Work conditions vary drastically by department and supervisor

4.0
Jun 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The HPC facilities (HPCC, ICER) offer excellent access for research affiliates colpaborating with university researchers, with Slurm job scheduling and a well-managed site-specific wiki.

Cons

Annual account renewal can be a bit bureacratically clunky at times, and the Research Affiliate may have to coordinate with multiple departments and the associated PI if a system update breaks part of a legacy system.

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