<p>I’ve heard that Brown has the smartest, most helpful and most intelligent faculty of any ivy. Faculty at other ivies, particularly Princeton and Harvard, have been said to be very cold, self-absorbed and hard to understand dur to their accents. Can anyone attest to this, or to the quality of faculty at any school?</p>
<p>Well, my brother is a math major at Brown and couldn't understand a few of his professors because of thick accents. But then, a math professor I know has said that any math department with Russians in it is shot to hell.</p>
<p>"any math department with Russians in it is shot to hell."</p>
<p>is this a good thing or a bad thing?</p>
<p>i went to the summer studies program at brown last summer and took a math course. my professor was russian. he had a very thick accent and was somewhat difficult to understand, but he was a great professor because he was very in tune with the students' needs (in terms of hw assignment due dates and grading of exams), and he also had a great sense of humor which kept the class from becoming too tedious.</p>
<p>I think the guy said that once a Russian infiltrates the department, he will rise to the top and hire only other Russians until the whole department is Russian. I don't remember why being Russian is a bad thing though...</p>
<p>I think you'll find in every school that the introductory level classes (especially math) are taught by grad students. Very rarely will a professor teach the class. In my experience, I've had teachers and TA's who do not speak English very well. It sucked for me. A lot. However, I feel safe saying that the majority of teachers/professors won't give you too much trouble. I had a brilliant Economics professor from Spain and his accent was very slight.</p>
<p>Grad students do not necessarily make bad teachers though. I had a grad student teach a class that was better than my old professor.</p>
<p>Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, and Penn are known for having weaker undergraduate educations. </p>
<p>Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, and Princeton are known for having stronger undergraduate educations.</p>
<p>Waaaaiiiit a second. TA's teach classes instead of professors at Brown?</p>
<p>The only classes taught by TAs at Brown are intro Math courses and a few intro language courses (which are then taught by native speakers)</p>
<p>Yeah, not really a big deal.</p>
<p>ParisKM notes
"I've heard that Brown has the smartest, most helpful and most intelligent faculty of any ivy."</p>
<p>Response: What a bunch of Hooey! Ivy schools are known for research! Yes, some do try to have good undergrad schools,but professors get promoted primarily on their research and not on their teaching ability. If you get a good teacher in an ivy school, consider yourself lucky.</p>
<p>If you really want top teacher types and close faculity-student relationships, go to a LAC. These people get promoted based on their teaching ability. President Sommers at Harvard noted this. He may have been criticized for his remark,but it was true!</p>
<p>By the way, for those that didn't hear Professor Sommers comment, he noted that Harvard ..(and presumably other ivy schools) attract the top scholars. If you want a close student-faculty relationship, go to a LAC like Swarthmore or Amhearst.</p>
<p>i don't know...i think the accessibility to top faculty is a huge advantage that brown has. a LAC is unlikely to have so many faculty members that are nobel laureates, former presidents, pulitzer prize winners, macarthur fellows, rhode scholars, guggenheim fellows...
yet at a school like Harvard students are unlikely to have access to the more illustrious faculty members</p>
<p>the great thing about brown is that you can be an undergrad that writes a thesis with a nobel laureate (like i did), write a capstone with a pulitzer prize winner, take a seminar with the former president of brazil.</p>
<p>dcircle, I can't speak for all LACs,but the better ones do have plenty of Rhode Scholars, Guggenheim fellows etc. They may not have a lot of Nobel Prize winners because they are not usually as research oriented as that of many Ivys. However, there are exceptions here too. </p>
<p>I don't doubt that if research is your goal, you may get more research opportunities at a non LAC because schools like Brown or even big state universities are, as I have noted, research oriented.</p>
<p>Tax guy: Ever notice how Brown and Princeton don't have much in the way of graduate programs? Yeah, that's because they are undergrad-centric! </p>
<p>With the exception of larger student bodies and in some cases classes and the presence of TA's, I'd say the teachers are equally dedicated to teaching. Every Brown professor is required to teach an undergrad course.</p>
<p>Claysoul notes,"Ever notice how Brown and Princeton don't have much in the way of graduate programs?"</p>
<p>Response: I know you are kidding ClaySoul. I happen to be knowledgable about Princeton since I have had several family members attend there and as well as several friends attend some of their graduate programs. </p>
<p>Princeton has some of the highest rated graduate programs in the US> For math and physics, Princeton has donminated the landscape for years. Albert Einstein taught there. They also are no slouches in Economics and many other majors. What they don't have is professional schools of law and medicine. This is not to say that they have a poor undergraduate program since they are known to have one of the stronger undergrad program. However, they are certainly well known for many graduate programs.</p>
<p>I can't speak for Brown because I am not familiar with their graduate programs. I do know, however, that they have a number of programs that are in the top 20 in US News and World Report. Also among all the ivys, I think Brown stands out because it is the only one without a required core curriculum.</p>
<p>I toured princeton and they said "we are an undergraduate institution. that is our focus."</p>
<p>Of course they have good graduate schools, they are princeton! but they are smaller and less emphasized than those at Harvard, UPenn, etc.</p>
<p>tax guy: I'm just curious. are you saying brown stands out only because it has no core?</p>
<p>No, there are other facits of Brown that stand out such as their relationship with RISD, certain department strengths, location in Providence and nearness to Boston and other major cities, more relaxed student body etc. I did not and will not do an expose on Brown. However, their lack of core requirements is one major feature that stands out in my mind. It is what salespeople call one of their "unique selling propositions."</p>
<p>Maybe some parents feel that having a strong core requirements, such as that found in Columbia University, is a major strength. In fact, that would be one of their unique selling propositions plus their NYC location. Each school has its pluses and minuses.</p>
<p>Personally, if I had a child that was good enough to attend an ivy school, this one factor alone ( no core requirements)would be enough to encourage me to recommend Brown over most of the other ivy schools. To me, being able to construct one's own education and not pay for "unwanted" and, in many cases, unneeded courses is a big selling point.</p>
<p>Some of your comments are truly funny taxguy. Do you know that Dartmouth doesn't even have graduate programs besides a medical school?</p>