Class size and TAs?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Binghamton University - SUNY
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<p>Hi guys! Accepted as a transfer for Spring '14, but just had a few questions!</p>

<p>I hope to dual-major in political science and East Asian Studies, so I was checking out the professors on ratemyprofessor (yeah, yeah, I know it's not the best source. I was just curious!) and noticed that virtually all of the professors had comments relating to their treatment of TAs. How exactly does this system work at Bing? </p>

<p>I come from a CUNY community college where virtually all of my classes were capped at 30 students (liberal arts) except for my science lectures (40 student cap) due to our robust teacher's union. I realize that Binghamton will have much larger class sizes (16% over 50 students according to USNews), but do most classes have TAs? Are professors in class in general? What's the student participation like during class? I know many of our history classes are conducted lecture-only with virtually no student input expected, but I've very much enjoyed the active role professors take in propagating discussion in my social science classes.</p>

<p>I've heard (what I consider to be) horror stories from a friend at RIT about classes where the professor shows up three times a semester with a graduate student doing the lecture while the professor makes the speaking circuit, so I was just worried when I saw that there were so many comments about TAs. </p>

<p>Thank you for any information!</p>

<p>(P.S. If anybody is a Poli Sci or Asian Studies/Chinese student, please share any must-take professors!)</p>

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<p>Hey, I’m History, not poli sci or Asian studies but I think the format is similar. Many classes meet twice a week with a professor and then have a third “discussion” section led by the TA. In my experience, the class itself is always taught by the professor with the TA sitting on the side. The discussion section is led by the TA (professor is not present), who mostly goes more in-depth on what the professor was talking about that week. It’s not usually new information being taught, more just a different way of explaining, clarifying, or going over what we learned that week. Usually the TA grades the papers, though, so there is a lot of weight there. They also have some input in participation grades I believe. </p>

<p>Most classes in this format are usually kind of large and there are several smaller discussion sections, not just one, sometimes each with different TAs. The discussions are obviously more participation based, but people always seem to be participating in the professor’s lectures as well. I once had a course like this with only 45 people in the lecture class so both the professor and TA generated a lot of participation.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

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<p>Does Anyone know how housing and orientation work? when do you sign up for housing and orientation? Did you hear anything back from bing about housing/orientation?</p>

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<p>Thank you very much, Rebbecar! That helps a lot in relieving my worries. It actually sounds pretty interesting.</p>