College of Engineering
Department of Computer Science

CS Graduate Teaching Assistant

The Computer Science Department @ Va Tech Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) assist faculty in the department in the teaching mission, with assignments including laboratory teaching, grading of examinations, problem sets and/or lab assignments, setting up lectures/laboratory sections, and preparing/maintaining laboratory equipment. GTAs gain valuable professional experience for their future career.

Who Can Apply

NON-CS Grad Students: you must apply to your home department for a GTA position. The CS Dept. does NOT offer CS GTA positions to non-CS grad students.

All CS graduate students requesting a GTA must complete this survey form every semester, (even if you believe that you have a funding guarantee).

This survey is not simply an application. It confirms that you need a position for the following semester, (students’ positions constantly change; we do not know of your changes unless you explicitly inform us). The survey indicates for which classes you can be a GTA.

So if you do not fill out the survey…no GTA.

Applicants must be a current VT graduate student in the Computer Science graduate program by the time their GTA would begin.

A GTA cannot also hold a full GRA position at the same time. The sum of any GTA support and any GRA support must be 100% or less.

BS/MS accelerated CS students may NOT start a GTA position until after they have graduated with their BS degree.

MEng students must NOT submit this form. MEng students are NOT eligible for GTA positions.

GTA positions require students to be a U.S citizen, permanent resident, or have a VISA that permits them to work in the U.S. with the work authorization card on the date of their GTA contract.

VT and the CS Dept. can not pay GTAs who are not physically located within the United States.

How GTAs are selected

Most semesters we get more requests for GTA positions than we can fill. Here is a brief description of the process that we use. First, when we admit students into the program, some are given a funding guarantee for some period of time, and some are not. So the positions are first given to anyone with an active funding guarantee. After that, we rank all of the applicants into an order based on a formula. The formula attempts to objectively capture our values for who should get funding. Applicants get points on the formula for many things, including their degree program (PhD gets more than MS), milestones passed (Plan of study submitted, PhD qualifier completed, and PhD prelim exam completed all give milestone points), Green Thursday evaluation, GPA (minor weighting), and a score for prior GTA performance. There are also negatives possible for things like being late on milestones or being past the normally expected graduation time (2 years for MS and 5 years for PhD). The overall goal of the formula is to bias towards people who have been funded in the past and who are making appropriate progress toward completing their degree.

Requirements/Information

Information about funding
Eligibility, compensation, benefits (tuition scholarship, insurance, etc.), obligations.
GTA General Overview
CS Grad student information
Grad 5004
- required/mandatory course for all GTAs. If you are awarded (& accept) a GTA contract and have never previously taken Grad 5004 you must enroll yourself.

Applications

Spring 2025 CS GTA Application

Initial Spring GTA position award decisions will be made in November with additional positions allocated as availability occurs. GTA specific course assignments will be known in December or January. The GTA application survey will confirm your application reception, (i.e., do not email requesting confirmation).

Details

CS grad students, who have completed the CS GTA survey, and accept other funding, must email DirAcadOps@cs.vt.edu to indicate you no longer need GTA funding.
Students awarded a GTA position will receive an email message with the GTA offer information.
The dates on GTA contracts correspond to State of Virginia employment salary schedules. Although the contract dates may start and end earlier than academic semesters, GTAs are hired to work during an academic term.
New GTAs who have never been employed by Virginia Tech must contact the CS Dept. Human Resources Specialist, Mr. Joe Morgan, (1180D Torgersen Hall | jmorgan22@vt.edu | (540) 231-8452 ), to schedule an appointment to complete their required VT employment paperwork.

Resources

Virginia Tech Academy for Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Excellence

Course Management Systems (CMS)

Canvas

Excel

Many instructors use Microsoft Excel for grade management. If you need to learn Excel, online training is available for free to VT students through Lynda.com whose tutorials are licensed by Va Tech. To obtain access log on using your VT email PID (without the "@vt.edu") and your VT email password and access the Lynda Excel tutorial.

Software

VT has site licences for many software products and reduced pricing:

Engineering Software information
VT Software reduced pricing
CS VT Common Software site (requires CS SLO logon)

Academy for Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) Excellence

If you are interested in more support and educational opportunities, visit the GrATE site

Presentation Kiosk Access

If you need access for lab teaching or otherwise request your supervising CS faculty member to setup access for you through VT Classroom A/V Services.

Required Training

English Proficiency

The VT Graduate school requires certain level of English proficiency. Get more information at the link.

All Virginia Tech non-U.S. citizen or non-U.S. permanent resident graduate students must demonstrate English proficiency .

a minimum TOEFL score of 90 (IBT) IELTS score of 6.5
TOEFL scores of 20 or greater in Listening, Writing, Speaking, and Reading subsections are required.
GTA English requirement: score of 25 or greater on the TOEFL Speaking subtest.

English proficiency can also be demonstrated through a conferred bachelor’s degree from an accredited university where English is the medium of instruction.

FERPA

FERPA training is required for all GTAs.

All GTAs are required to complete and submit the FERPA form. The form can NOT be submitted electronically. You must print the form, complete it, sign it and physically turn it in to the secretary in Torgerson Hall room 3210. (If you have previously been a GTA and have already submitted a FERPA form you do NOT need to do so again.)

Title IX

All Va Tech employees are required to complete Title IX and Retaliation training. The sexual harassment of students and sexual violence involving students are forms of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX and university policy. The training explains Title IX’s focus on sexual harassment, sexual violence and the prohibition against retaliation for participating in a discrimination investigation or complaint. Learn how to support students, satisfy your compliance responsibilities under Virginia Tech’s policy and ensure that actions are not taken to retaliate against someone for bringing or participating in an investigation. Direct all questions regarding Title IX training and access to training to Human Resources at hrservicecenter@vt.edu. (If you have previously been a GTA and have already completed the Title IX Training you do NOT need to do so again. Title IX training needs to be renewed every two years.)

ZOOM webinars for Title IX training will be posted here when they become available. GTAs need only attend only one of the following sessions and engage in the webinar, to receive credit for the Title IX training:

Once you complete the training, VT HR will be informed and update your information to indication your completion. Be aware though, you must engage during the webiunar to receive credit.

Privacy

Be aware that in your duties as a GTA you may have access to other students’ grades and academic work. Note that you will have a legal obligation, (as do all people who work for the university), to maintain the strict confidentiality of any students’ grades and work. As policy, student data must NOT be downloaded for permanent storage. Only temporary download of student data is allowed as necessary for the entry/updating of students' grades. All student data will only be stored on the course servers or instructor’s computer.

NEVER download student data to external data mediums, (USB flash drives, etc.)!
NEVER identify students by their full name and VT ID number via email or in documents.
Return all hard copies of student data to supervisor(s) at the end of the semester for destruction.

When deleting temporarily downloaded students’ data from your computer you must use file shredding software to ensure permanent deletion of the data:

MS Windows: File Shredder, Eraser
Mac OS: Shredder, Eraser

Sage Advice

Read the GTA Survival Guide written by Mr. McQuain, an instructor with many years of experience here at VT.

updated: 2024.10.20 DirAcadOps@cs.vt.edu