Get Funding for PhD at NCSU - Advice on Asking Profs

[bloometal]

So I got an admit at NCSU for PHD math finally. In fact, it was the only school I got an admit from. Unfortunately, (Yep you guessed it!) I did not land myself any sort of funding. They seemingly decide upon Teaching Assistantships once in a year, and that's that!
So, my only option on getting my tuition paid is getting myself an RA. Do you think that is possible now that the decision for no funding is already made?
How do I go about asking the Profs? Should I be open about it or do I tell them I'm just interested in learning more before I get there and then once I get there, I ask them about RA?

Thanks a ton for any sort of advice!

 

[Vanadium 50]

Usually RA-ships are more competitive than TA-ships. You can ask, but I wouldn't make any plans assuming that this would happen.

 

[ZapperZ]

So I got an admit at NCSU for PHD math finally. In fact, it was the only school I got an admit from. Unfortunately, (Yep you guessed it!) I did not land myself any sort of funding. They seemingly decide upon Teaching Assistantships once in a year, and that's that!
So, my only option on getting my tuition paid is getting myself an RA. Do you think that is possible now that the decision for no funding is already made?
How do I go about asking the Profs? Should I be open about it or do I tell them I'm just interested in learning more before I get there and then once I get there, I ask them about RA?

Thanks a ton for any sort of advice!

TA'ship at most schools are often given out each year. There's no "long term" contract here, so this is not unusual. Unless you really suck as a TA, I don't see this as being a problem for you to continue your graduate program being a TA.

RA'ship, as has been mentioned, are more difficult and contingent upon the fact that there is a faculty member with research funding. Since you said that you are just about to enter the graduate program, I would assume that you haven't passed your qualifier yet. No many faculty member would take on a student as an RA before you pass your qualifier.

I've already described in detailed the journey during the first couple of years of graduate school in my "So You Want To Be A Physicist". While it may not apply to you as a math major, I would think that many of the same principles might still be relevant.

Zz.