In my university, an adjunct teaching faculty with a M.S. or Ph.D. degree
makes $1000-1200 per credit hour at the instructor and assistant professor
level, $1900 at the associate professor level, and $2300 at the professor
level. This is translated to $3000-7000 for a 3 credit hour course in a
semester. So a 0.5 FTE (i.e., 20 hours/week) adjunct faculty makes $6000-
14000/semester. As a comparison, for a teaching assistant (TA) on a 20 hours
/week basis (0.5 FTE), he or she makes $8500-9000/semester in addition to
tuition reductions. So a TA or RA is paid comparatively better. The reason
is that the GA system is designed to help graduate students financially, so
they can focus on their studies including their course work and research and
complete their intended graduate degrees. Therefore, GAship is not just a
job but in fact better than an entry level job. With my more than 15 years
of experience teaching in a US university, I can testify that some graduate
students were even paid more than I did on a hourly basis considered the
actual hours they put in as a GA.
In addition to the teaching responsibilities, a graduate student on a TAship
is expected to work with his or her advisor(s) to perform and complete a
research project for a graduate degree requiring a thesis or dissertation.
Otherwise, it would defeat the purpose to award an assistantship to the
student. In fact, the university can hire adjunct to do a better job.
For a graduate student on an RAship, he or she is required to perform the
duties as required for the intended research project. This RAship could be
even from another professor or department unrelated to his or her thesis or
dissertation. In addition, similar to a TA, he or she is expected to work
with his or her major advisor to complete an independent research project
towards the theis/dissertation-based degree. In many if not most cases, if
the RA is from the same advisor, the graduate student is usually focused on
the same research project. I was told by another faculty who is American and
white that he, as an RA, did one research project for his major advisor and
another for his Ph.D. degree in one of the best public US universities.
