In Which Penelope Reaches the Zenith of Her Literary Ambitions “Hey, guys. I’m Jared. I’ll be your Counting People TF this semester. Welcome.” Jared started clapping, and shortly, everyone else followed suit, including Penelope, even though Raymond had bit her hand that morning and it still ached. Lan said she thought he had rabies. Penelope hoped that wasn’t true. It was the first week of discussion sections and official homework. Harvard had a lot of lecture classes, and in order to compensate for the lack of individual attention associated with that format, each lecture class also had a once-a-week mandatory discussion section taught by TFs, or teaching fellows. These were usually graduate students who had specialization in the class’s material. TFs determined a student’s final grade, so who one’s TF was was very important. Students competed for the easiest TF with a sort of death aggression. They called their professors at home. They made up fake prior commitments so they would be free only during their favorite’s time slot.
