Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA) Information

The UTA Application is Coming Soon. TBA 

Apply

Upon successful completion of your application, you will receive an email confirmation. You can also double check if your application has been recorded by revisiting the application link. If you can fill out an application again, we did not receive it.

We cannot hire students who will be residing outside the country (this includes studying abroad) and we cannot accept anyone on a volunteer basis. You must be an enrolled student during the semester you are a UTA i.e., not on leave. Even if you have been a UTA previously, you must re-apply to be a UTA each semester.

For 101/201 -- If you choose one as a first choice and the other as a second choice, you will not likely be considered for the second-choice course, regardless of if you were a previous UTA for that course. For example, if you put 101 as your first choice and 201 as your second choice, you will not be considered for 201 because it is your second choice. This is only the case for 101/201 because of the number of applications we receive.

Applications can be submitted after that and will continue to be open throughout the first two weeks of the semester; however, we cannot guarantee full consideration, especially for courses that will hold interviews. Depending on which course(s) you applied for, you may receive separate emails with follow up surveys or questions. Students applying for 101, 201, 210, 230, & 330 will have to interview. Different courses have different timelines for UTA selections.

Contact the UTA Program Administrator, Jackie Okoh, uta-program@cs.duke.edu, if you have any questions about being a UTA or your application.

Overview

If you have taken a CompSci course previously, then you know there are many other people helping the professor to support your learning in that course, e.g., returning feedback about your assignments, reviewing concepts in a recitation section. Most of these duties are done by undergraduate students just like you! Here, you can get a chance to take part in a rewarding job, allowing you to help your fellow students out as they go through the same journey you once did.

 

Consideration

Ideally, you loved the course that you want to UTA for! You should have at least taken the course before or have the equivalent background experience in the course topics and programming languages or communicate with the professor that you feel confident that you grasped the materials covered in the course you would like to UTA.

If you have the time and expertise, you can indicate that you are willing to be a UTA for multiple courses (of your preferred choices). We will coordinate with you if we have such need.

Courses that need UTAs for Fall 2025

CourseExpected DutiesConsideration
CompSci 94: Introduction to Programming Via Animation and 3D Virtual Worlds (Rodger)
  • Attend meetings
  • Grade assignments
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Completion of CompSci 94 or CompSci 101.
  • Must be able to attend lecture on Tuesday & Thursday from 10:05-11:20am.
  • Preparation for programs required in advance. 
CompSci 101: Intro to Computer Science (Rodger, Steiger)

There are two types of TAs:

  • Lab TA
  • Grader TA

Note: While we aim to accommodate preferences for TA roles, assignments are not guaranteed.

Responsibilities for all TAs:

  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Assist with exam logistics
  • Grade exams, including the final

Additional Role-Specific Duties:

  • Lab TA:
    • Attend one lab training per week
    • Record a lab review (videos)
    • Lead a lab section
    • Grade labs
  • Grader TA:
    • Grade assignments
  • A technical interview is necessary for prospective new UTAs.
  • Estimated time commitment: 4-6 hours/week.
  • While it's not mandatory to be available to lead a lab section, preference will be given to those who are.
     
CompSci 171CN:  Learning How to Learn with AI (Stephens-Martinez)
  • Grading assignments and exams
  • Holding office hours
  • Attending weekly teaching team meetings
  • Must know Python, even better if also know pandas, numpy, and seaborn.
  • Strong preference for those that have taken CS101 and/or CS216.
  • Estimated 5-7 hours/week.
CompSci 201: Data Structures and Algorithms (Astrachan (001) & O'Hanlon (002)
  • Attend weekly meetings
  • Grade assignments
  • Lead discussion section
  • Hold office hours in the evening
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Grade exams and final
  • Must have availability to lead a discussion section, which are throughout F 11:45am–4:20pm.
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
  • Estimated 6-8 hours/week.
Compsci 210D: Intro to Computer Systems (Chase)
  • Attend a weekly meeting
  • Lead discussion section
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
  • Estimated 6-8 hours/week.
Compsci 216: Everything Data (Stephens-Martinez)
  • Attend meetings
  • Grade homework and exams
  • Grade projects
  • Testing exams
  • Helping in lecture
  • Holding office hours
  • Writing autograder/scripts
  • Creating course content
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Strong preference for students who have taken CS 216 or proficiency programming in python and other statistics/data science experience at the 200+ level.
  • Estimated 5-7 hours/week.
CompSci 231D: Discrete Math with Functional Programming and Proofs: A Mathematical Intro to Computer Science (Donald)
  • Attend weekly teaching team meetings
  • Grade assignments in grading parties
  • Lead recitation sessions
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed
  • Grade exams
  • Min. requirement: CompSci 230 or equivalent. You should be able to handle the concepts the students work with in this course.
  • Recitation is various times on Mondays 10:05am-4:20pm.
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
COMPSCI 240: Race, Gender, Class & Computing (Washington)
  • Grade
  • Answer Ed
  • Hold office hours
  • Min. requirement: Completion of CompSci 240 with a minimum grade of a B. 
COMPSCI 250D: Computer Architecture (Cross ECE 250D)- (Sorin)
  • Attend weekly meetings
  • Grade exams and homework
  • Lead recitation session
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed
  • Interview necessary for new UTAs.
CompSci 290-D-001: Cinema Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence (O'Hanlon)
  • Grading assignments
  • Supporting students with project work
  • Reading papers and watching films in order to keep up with course content
  • Attend lecture (preferred)
     

 

  • Min. Requirements: strong interest in cinema and AI.
  • Strong knowledge of cinema or AI. 
CompSci 316 D: Intro to Database Systems (J. Yang, Fouh)
  • Attend weekly staff meetings
    Lead or help out with discussion sections (optional)
  • Hold office hours
  • Answering Ed questions
  • Grade assignments and exams
  • Monitor the progress of team projects and provide feedback on milestones throughout the semester
  • Review and grade team projects at the end of the semester
     
  • Must have taken CompSci 316 or 516 and received A- or better.
CompSci 334: Mathematical Foundations (Rodger)
  • Grade problem sets and exams
  • Hold office hours
  • Completion of CompSci 334 or equivalent.
CompSci 351/581: Introduction to Computer Security (Reiter)
  • Attend staff meetings
  • Hold office hours
  • Run lab/recitation 
  • Completion of CompSci 351 or equivalent. 
CompSci 371: Elements of Machine Learning (Tomasi)
  • Help grade homework and exams
  • Hold office hours,
  • Respond to questions on Canvas
  •  Must have taken the course or an equivalent. 
CompSci 372: Introduction to Applied Machine Learning (Fain)
  • Assignment & exam grading
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Weekly staff meeting
  • Keep up with current class material
     
  • Python programming experience.
  • Applied machine learning experience including deep learning.
  • Timely and professional in grading and communication.
  • Strong preference to have taken the class before.
CompSci 390-04 & 390-05: Computer Game Design (Velasco)
  • Hold office hours
  • Answer Ed questions
  • Grade assignments and exams
  • May be asked to proctor exams if needed
  • Have taken the course or have some game development experience.
  • Those who have not taken the course will be expected to either watch lecture. recordings or attend lectures
  • Experience with Pico-8 or Unity is a plus.
CompSci 671D: Statistical Machine Learning (Rudin)

Some subset of this list, depending on preference:

  • Leading discussion
  • Design of materials (hw, tests, kaggle competitions)
  • Grading
  • Office hours
  • Webmaster
  • Answer Ed
  • Min. requirement: Completion of CompSci 671 with a minimum grade of an A. 

Duties and Commitment

Being a UTA is a serious obligation that requires a firm and substantial weekly commitment on your part. It requires timely checking and responses to communication (e.g. email, Slack, Ed). It is a semester-by-semester job that extends from the first day of classes through the end of final exams. You must re-apply each semester.

All UTAs will be required to attend a training session at the beginning of the semester.

Duties will vary between classes, but you can generally expect to do some of the following:

  • Grade – Responsibilities range from students’ assignments or in upper-level courses, projects. Sometimes a professor may have UTAs grade student exams.
  • Hold office hours – Most courses will have office hours in the evening. Office hours are used to answer student questions about topics covered in lecture, homework problems, etc.
  • Lead a recitation/lab – Lower-level courses such as 101, 201, 230, etc. have a discussion section where students will get more application problems on topics covered in class. UTAs will lead students through the problems and facilitate collaboration and discussion among students about the topic. UTAs will have to prepare beforehand by attending a lab meeting, and/or looking over the material, and/or doing the problems beforehand so that they can come prepared for answering questions.
  • Answer ED questions – Most courses use ED as a tool where instructors can post course announcements and communicate important information to students. Students can use this platform to ask questions about logistics of the course, get clarification on the homework, or a study problem. The professor cannot answer all questions in a timely manner, so UTAs will also respond to questions that students may have.
  • Attend planning meetings – Faculty will arrange a regular meeting to gather all their UTAs so that they can prepare UTAs for the upcoming week or address questions and concerns that UTAs may also have.
  • Meet with student groups – Some project-based courses such as 308 or 316 will require that UTAs independently meet with the group of students that they are assigned to.
  • Administrative duties - If you are a Head UTA, you may have to send out emails and organize various UTAs for specific duties. The professor will be in close contact and instruct you.
  • Attend lecture - Some faculty need UTAs during regular class time because the course is structured like a lab.

Compensation

The pay begins at $15.75 per hour with opportunities for increases annually. You must detail your hours biweekly on the CS UTA app as well as fill out a timecard on time at Duke@Work.

Work Study

Work study is not required for this job, but it is encouraged. You do not have to be on financial aid to be on work study. Please see the Duke Financial Aid Work Study section for more information on how to sign up for work study.