TA vs RA

During graduate school, there are two standard sources of funding, teaching assistantships (TA) and research assistantships (RA). Typically your first year as a graduate student will be funded as a teaching assistant, then once you join a research group, if the PI has money, you can be placed on a research assistantship so you can focus your entire time on research and not have to spend 20-30 hours a week teaching. Often times graduate students will be on a TA stipend their entire time because that is less money out of the professors funds.

If you enjoy teaching and interacting with students, being on TA funding isn't bad at all. Typically you can work your way up in the ranks and become a head TA (usually a slight higher paycheck goes along with this) and in some schools you can even get the chance to be an instructor of record. This can be great if you are interested in teaching at a community college or university because it will show your potential employers that you have that experience already.

Being on an RA has its own benefits as well. You get to make more progress on your research so you can potentially finish school a year early if you work extremely hard. If you work even harder you may be able to graduate in three years even, but this is typically accompanied by working 16-18 hour days, 7 days a week. There is typically no ranking in the RA funding so there is not a way to earn a bit more money unless you get a fellowship that pays more than your department's minimum graduate stipend.

Some graduate students may be fortunate enough to have the choice between TA and RA, some may constantly strive towards RA, while others may be content with the TA funding for five or so years. No matter which source of funding you have, you should embrace every aspect of it and either utilize the teaching experience or the extra time to spend on your research.