<p>We are planning a visit to Vanderbilt and were looking at math classes to potentially visit. I looked up one instructor of the accelerated single-variable calculus class, and one of multivariable calculus, and saw that they are both postdocs rather than professors. The classes are lectures, not discussion sections.</p>
<p>We're just beginning our search and have a lot to learn, but this didn't seem to me a great sign. Is this common? Okay?</p>
<p>I’m a student at Vanderbilt. I’ve had good and less than good experiences with the math department. By far, the best Math lecturer I’ve had was a post-doc; The worst I’ve had was an associate professor. I understand why one would initially be put off by a class being taught by a post-doc, but please realize that such persons have gone through a great deal of training for the job. Realistically, many of them might have more time to devote to their students than a tenure-track professor who is desperately trying to climb the ladder.</p>
<p>Is it common? I can’t say for sure, as my experience is limited, but I have a feeling it is. Most math professors will tell you something like: “Calculus is not real mathematics.” The applied math crowd will have a different opinion, but because Calculus courses tend to be focused on calculations and not proofs, the essence of mathematics, few established professors will want to teach it.</p>
<p>I hope you enjoy your visit to Vandy/Nashville.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughtful reply. What you say makes a lot of sense; I just hadn’t thought of it that way. We’ve got a lot to learn about colleges and math world in particular; thanks for helping us get started on the way.</p>
<p>Will he be majoring in math?</p>
<p>Vanderbilt appears to keep math lectures small even for frosh/soph level courses, but that means that it needs a lot of people to do the lectures. So it is no surprise that post-docs are among the instructors.</p>
<p><a href=“https://webapp.mis.vanderbilt.edu/more/SearchClasses!input.action[/url]”>https://webapp.mis.vanderbilt.edu/more/SearchClasses!input.action</a></p>
<p>If he will be a math major, he may want to note the offerings of junior/senior and graduate level math courses.</p>
<p>Yes, she would be a math major. And looking on through the course offerings there are a lot of interesting higher-level topics. Thanks!</p>
<p>For a math major, the offerings at the junior/senior level (and graduate level if she is very advanced) will be significantly more important than how the frosh calculus courses are run (especially if she takes calculus or more advanced math while still in high school and skips many of the frosh/soph math courses after entering college).</p>
<p>Good points also, ucb - thanks. She’s taking MV this (junior) year and did years of proof-based math through AoPs, so she should be able to be somewhat accelerated.</p>
<p>From what my daughter has experience in STEM classes, post docs are actually some of the nicer/more helpful/fairer teachers, they remember what it was like on ‘that side’ of the podium :). I would not worry too much, post docs often teach lower level classes (as far as math goes, calculus is low level, so I’m not surprised to hear of post docs teaching it). One of my daughter’s favorite math professors was a post doc, and her other favorite was a grad student! The tenure track really didn’t seem to care as much and were often less helpful and less likely to be in their office to answer questions, while the postdocs have somebody to answer to, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>I minored in math and statistics, and the best math professor I ever had only had a Masters.</p>
<p>Just because you have a PhD doesn’t mean you know how to teach.</p>
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<p>“Somewhat accelerated”? She is about three years ahead of the normal sequence, as multivariable calculus is normally a college sophomore level course (the other usual college sophomore level math courses are linear algebra, differential equations, and discrete math).</p>
<p>In this case, she would likely start in the junior level math courses when she enters college; how the frosh/soph level math courses are run won’t matter to her. Given how advanced she is, she should consider the strength of each school’s math department in terms of offerings of junior/senior and graduate level courses, and opportunities for research as an undergraduate.</p>