TA life in the chemistry department

We learned a good deal about what life is like for graduate students in the chemistry department. Unfortunately most of the same problems exists in physics and chemistry and no real solutions for either department were discussed.

Chem. dept. has only TAs no AIs
Everyone who TAs TAs a lab their first year but lots of students try to switch to lecture TAs after their 1st year.
Chem. dept. has a very good support staff (a graduate coordinator and 2 assistants) that makes life much easier on grad students.
Chem. dept. has approx. 300 grad students
Many TAs TA upper level classes because chem majors, premeds and chem engineers all take upper level chemistry courses.
It is common for students to TA for their research advisors.
Most chem. labs are 4 hours for which students taking the lab receive 2 credit hours.
Labs are separate courses from the lecture courses and there is very little coordination between the two. Sometimes faculty will give a lecture before the lab so TAs spend very very little time at the chalkboard doing any kind of lecturing during lab.
Often the course you TA is related to your research area.
Students have a fair amount of say in what they teach and it is common for students to TA the same class each semester.
Professors edit the lab manuals on a regular basis.
Students in lab get an equipment “box” at the start of the semester which they keep themselves and store in a locker on the 5th floor of Welch. If students break any glassware they buy their own replacement.
398T is a very useless course in the chemistry department. Mostly you listen to two professors talk about how wonderful teaching is and how everyone should love teaching.
Most chem. grad students plan to TA for 1 - 2 years and then hope to get an RA (average time to PhD is around 4-5 years).
RAs pay 90-100% of the TA salary (TA salary is essentially the same as physics TA salary)
Chem. grad students receive their TA assignment approx. 1 month before the start of class.
Summer TA appointments are somewhat scarce but generally students do not worry about funding. Every student will somehow get either an RA or a TA.