<p>I'm a Freshman and taking 5 courses in the fall semester out of which 3 are taught by assistants, only having 2 actual professors. Should I consider myself pretty unlucky, which I do, because they perhaps don't offer as good of an education? Have you ever taken a class taught by a TA? How were they, in terms of how well did they teach? Poorly, so-so, as good as any prof?</p>
<p>Hi. How do you know if the class are taught by TAs or professors? Is it because there is no name next to the class location? Thanks</p>
<p>JehJar,</p>
<p>I'm no expert on UT's teaching assistants but, while there may be classes taught by TAs, I think courses are supposed to be taught by professors and the TA's help. Here is a link for UT's policies on TAs: <a href="http://www.utexas.edu/policies/hoppm/h0801.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.utexas.edu/policies/hoppm/h0801.html</a> Could it be that some of your classes will have lectures given by a professor, with different sections (listed by the TA's name) in which the TA teaches the review/practice/discussion session each week?</p>
<p>uth0rns,</p>
<p>When there is no name given for a class, usually that means the professor hasn't been assigned yet. I don't think it means a TA will be teaching the class (see the link above), but I'm not familiar with every college at UT. There could be exceptions, especially if the class is a lab for a science course.</p>
<p>That's not uncommon at all. At many big schools, like UT, and especially in freshman/intro classes, the prof. will design the lecture and give it to the TA to teach to the class. Eventually when you get more "into" your major, the TAs won't teach it at all.</p>
<p>there's no way 3 of your courses are taught by TAs. Large intro classes are always taught by profs, and the discussions are held by the TAs, but this is how almost all universities are (when i visited UChicago they did the same thing).</p>
<p>I took calculus that was labeled "staff" last semester and then around when the class finally started we had a real professor, it's just that sometimes it takes them a while to sort out schedules and everything. I wouldn't really worry.</p>