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A few feet from the door and with just a few minutes to go before my first English 104 class, I popped into the women's bathroom. The class was being held in a dormitory computer lab and was the only classroom around, so I guessed the young woman washing her hands at the sink was going to the same class. She guessed the same and asked, "Are you going to the English class in the lab next door, too?"

"Yes," I said and smiled at our obviously new school outfits. We were both wearing wool sweaters new from the holidays. They were an essential part of any outfit in an Iowa January.

"I hope it is a fun class," she said with freshman optimism ringing in her voice.

"Me, too."

"I'm sort of nervous," she added. "I hope we have a good teacher," she said with an eager smile.

"I know we will -- I am the teacher."

Her mouth dropped and she couldn't help herself from snapping, "Shut up!"

I knew I looked young, even for being in my mid-twenties. But I was a teaching assistant and I still looked like a freshman. This was scary. Get ready for it. Some of your college teachers will look more like your dormmates than the graying and tweed-coat-wearing professors you might imagine. To put it simply, teaching assistants, more commonly known as T.A.s, are graduate students who gain valuable experience by teaching freshman courses. Whether you will be attending a small private college or a large urban university, chances are you will have a T.A. early in your college career. Sometimes there is very little assisting going on as T.A.s can serve as the sole instructors in certain classrooms, other times your T.A. will serve to assist a regular professor in their lecture.

Either way, most T.A.s usually grade assignments, supervise labs, and lead discussion groups. And they are often just as nervous as you are on the first day of class. With classes that have hundreds of students in them, the professor might lecture one or two times a week to the whole class. Then, once or twice a week, you will meet small groups (aka recitations) that are led by a T.A.

In situations like this, the T.A. is really your lifeline for the course. The T.A. will help explain what the professor was talking about when she scratched all those equations on the board or described the existential motifs in 19th century Russian literature. They are like translators for the strange, new language that you'll be learning in college.

He or she will often be your best chance for succeeding in these classes. The professor won't know you; most likely, when he looks up, he'll see 400 heads -- some with eyes looking at him, others with eyes closed. Your T.A., however, will know you from your small group meetings, which will consist of fewer than 20 students.

Making the Most of a T.A. relationship
T.A.s are approachable, but busy. They're taking classes themselves, which means they're doing in-depth research and writing lengthy papers, too. They may not be able to deal with super high-maintenance freshmen. Lisa Kadous, an English T.A. at George Mason University, explains, "I may not be able to meet for hours at a time with each student, but I do hope they will come to my office if they have questions or just want to talk about their work in class."

Listen to Lisa -- T.A.s are open and friendly. Don't be shy. You should feel free to seek them out during their office hours for individual help. Believe it or not, they love the subject of your class and will enjoy helping you or even just talking about the larger issues involved.

T.A.s know their way around campus too. Since T.A.s are graduate students, they've likely been hanging around your campus for a long time and usually know a lot about your school and their department. Michele Bidelspach, a 1999 graduate of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), advises incoming freshmen that, "T.A.s are a freshman's best way to get information about the school, the department, the professors, and possible majors." If you find a good one, keep in contact with him or her; ask for their advice. It's always helpful to have connections on campus. You may need a letter of recommendation some day for a grant, fellowship, or job recommendation.

Just like some professors will be great and others will be loathsome, T.A.s can be smart as whips or just plain frustrating. Molly Chehak, a 1996 graduate of New York University (New York, NY), said of her numerous T.A.s, "Some were useless or lazy, but most were good. Some were even gems. When I had a good T.A., I learned more from our small group discussion sessions than I did from the professor."

Be a good sport and help make these recitations interesting: T.A.s want you to talk!

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