All graduate students are required to teach in two courses, chosen from numerous lecture, laboratory and seminar courses offered at the undergraduate, graduate or medical school levels. Students may not teach in the first year. Many students teach once during the second year of study and once during the third year.
In the summer of each year, the BBS office will notify all graduate students of the courses in which teaching fellows are needed in the upcoming academic year. Soon thereafter, students should indicate their interest in such positions and their preference for specific courses by submitting the BBS teaching survey. Every effort will be made to assign students to the courses requested.
There are two different levels of Teaching Fellows at Yale, distinguished from each other based on the number of hours per week. If a student serves as a TF10 level (10 hours per week), he/she must teach two semesters to complete the teaching requirement. Most courses fall into this category. Students are not allowed to teach 2 courses in one semester. A small number of courses are at the TF20 level (20 hours per week). In this case, a student would only need to teach one course to satisfy the teaching requirement.
MD/Ph.D. students are only required to TA one course at the 10 hour/week level.
Prior to the first semester of teaching, each student is expected to attended Teaching-at-Yale Day: Preparation for all New Teaching Fellows offered by the McDougal Center at the beginning of each semester. Students are encouraged to take one or more of the short courses for teaching fellows offered by the McDougal Center during the fall semester.
Students may elect to teach beyond the two – semester requirement. Such extra teaching should not take time away from thesis research. It should be noted that, for nearly all students (with the exception of those having outside fellowships), support in years four and beyond is provided by the thesis advisor’s research grant. Thus, the student contemplating teaching beyond the teaching requirement must first discuss the matter with the thesis advisor. Priority for teaching assignments is given to students needing to fulfill their teaching requirement over students electing to teach beyond the required number of courses.
The MCDB Graduate Program is a full-time commitment and any part-time jobs for pay, including tutoring to Yale College students, requires the approval of the thesis advisor and the DGS.