Teaching

Students are required to teach 1 semester.

Experience as a teacher is a valuable part of a graduate training program.  In their second year, students are required to teach one semester in an undergraduate course (or graduate level course, if appropriate to do so).  Teaching assignments are typically chosen by the student in an area of his or her preference. 

Many (but not all) teaching fellow positions offer a payment of some kind.  The Biophysics Program abides by the policy of the department through which the student is teaching.  Whereas some programs restrict students from receiving pay for the course they are teaching if it is in fulfillment of their TF requirement, the Biophysics Program has no such restriction.  The Biophysics Program does, however, require that the course being taught to fulfill the teaching requirement involves and provides experience in actual interaction with the students in the form of lectures or sections and is more than merely a paper grading exercise.

In addition to directly approaching faculty instructors regarding TF'ing oppportunities for courses they are teaching, students are also encouraged to log in to the Centralized Application for Teaching Sections (CATS) with their Harvard Key to view posted openings for TF positions in varous courses across the University.

Students are welcome to continue to teach beyond the one semester for fulfillment of their TF requirement, as long as they are making substantial progress in their dissertation research, remain in good student standing, and have the approval of their dissertation advisor.