<p>I am very excited about the good news.</p>
<p>On thing that I am concerned about is Harvard's use of graduate students. I think they are called teaching fellows. I have heard from people that the graduate students mostly teach sections and grade exams and papers. I have also applied to Williams and Haverford.</p>
<p>I am thinking of studying either social anthropology or history.</p>
<p>Can current Harvard students comment?</p>
<p>I'm not a current Harvard student, but I was asking myself the same question. I think I read somewhere in the prospectus the question "how many classes are taught by Harvard faculty?", and the answer was "virtually 100%."
But, I just discovered this:</p>
<p>"Many sections are taught by graduate students"</p>
<p>Source:
Harvard</a> Mathematics Department : 21, 23, 25, or 55?</p>
<p>This is from the math department and only concerns a specific course, so I cannot tell you how it is with social anthropology / history.</p>
<p>However, on the same page, it says something different about another course:</p>
<p>"This class is always taught by a faculty member."</p>
<p>So my guess is just that it really depends on the course, but probably a current student can help you further :)</p>
<p>However, I have a question to you, too. Which "good news" are you referring to?</p>
<p>In large courses you'll typically you'll have a lecture two or three times a week and a section with a grad student once a week. Smaller courses may only meet with the professor. Freshmen seminars don't have TAs. There are a few courses that might only be taught be grad students - such as introductory math courses and I think some language courses.</p>
<p>^^Foreign language courses must be taught by native speakers, so you may get a TF there if there aren't anough profs to go around.</p>
<p>I am wondering who will be grading papers and exams.</p>
<p>TA's grade papers and exams</p>
<p>But, of course, TFs grade papers and exams with extensive input from the professors of the courses. Another PhD student in my lab was a TF for Life Sciences 1A last semester, and she had some personal judgment about which homework answers to give credit for, but she was constrained by an answer key written by the professors.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, why does it matter?</p>
<p>How long are sections? 1 hour? 2?</p>
<p>Sections last for one hour, and are generally held once a week... Many of the TFs are actually better teachers than the real professors</p>
<p>Molliebatmit -- I think it only matters because many students want to attend Harvard for the stellar professors on staff. Although some TAs may be better than professors, many of them must lack the experience and expertise of the full professors.</p>
<p>"So my guess is just that it really depends on the course"</p>
<p>Here are the Harvard courses that may be taught by someone other than a faculty member:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Intro math (Math 21 and below). They keep the sections to 12 students or less, so grad students may teach these.</p></li>
<li><p>Foreign languages, for the reason discussed in post 4</p></li>
<li><p>Certain writing courses are taught by published authors who may not be members of the faculty.</p></li>
<li><p>Research tutorials. In some departments (like psychology, which I majored in), tutorials may be led by graduate students if they are the ones doing the research in the area of interest.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>All other courses are taught by professors. If anyone is aware of any other exceptions, let me know, but these 4 are the only ones I've ever heard of.</p>
<p>I have heard that tutorials are like seminars that you take in soph and jr years.</p>
<p>Are these taught by grad students or professors?</p>
<p>It depends on the department and the area of interest. Also, in some departments they are not like seminars; they are one-on-one.</p>
<p>The Grad students at Harvard are usually
surrounded by senior and fellow students who are drawn from the best
in the world. there may even be a huge concetration of one set of alumni
for a specific college in a particular depertment.</p>
<p>I would rather be taught by this clique of people than a prof who does not have time of day for my questions. </p>
<p>Logically, given the continuation in reputation, the reliance strategy
has worked for Harvard despite a number of years of change in the
underlying content?</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Tutorials and seminars are almost always taught by professors (I can't really think of exceptions off the top of my head). That's sort of their point, you get awesome close contact with a professor in a small course setting.</p>
<p>As far as TFs go (TFs = Teaching Fellows = Teaching Assistant in Harvard-speak), yes most sections are taught by TFs, not professors. There's no way around this. The professor gives the lectures two-three times a week and oversees the course, and the TFs teach the sections and grade the papers (do you really think they're going to make a tenured Nobel Laureate grade 60 papers). </p>
<p>It is important to realize, however, that this is going to be true at most schools you look at (Williams, Amherst, etc, being exceptions). All the ivies tell you that every class is taught by a full professor, and for the most part it's true. But that doesn't mean section is taught by a full professor, all schools use grad students to TF their sections and grade papers. Every tour guide that says "you will never be taught by a grad student here at ___" really means "you will never be lectured to by a grad student." It's a common misconception among HS students, mostly because not having been to college they don't understand how college courses are taught. It's not the same as HS, nor should it be.</p>
<p>All that being said, TFs here are absolutely incredible (they're Harvard grad students, after all, meaning they're people who are going to be Harvard PhD's in ___). They're also younger, relate to students better than a lot of professors, and provide their own insights into the courses. I love the teaching here, and I'm in a lot of larger 'impersonal' premed courses.</p>
<p>the harvard phd student will be the next big name in their field so i would be very happy to be taught by them</p>
<p>
Right, I understand why someone would be concerned about the use of TFs in general, even though I personally agree with the students/alums who have already posted that TFs are a positive force overall.</p>
<p>I just don't understand why it matters who's doing the grading, which is the question the OP asked in post #5.</p>
<p>For the record, as a Harvard PhD student, I'm really excited about teaching. I already completed my department's teaching requirement, but my labmate and I are planning to TF one of the neurobiology courses together at some point. Our boss is putting together the curriculum for the new Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology concentration, and we will probably TF for one of his new courses, as well. We're super-psyched about it.</p>
<p>Based both on my experience (admittedly quite a while ago) and my son's experience (he's currently a junior), I agree with the generally positive reviews of TF's. But I also want to point out that there are a quite a number of small enrollment courses at Harvard as well. It's not possible to avoid large enrollment courses entirely (intro and core courses tend to be large), but it's certainly possible to take lots of courses with enrollment under 15-20 and no TF. I did when I was there 30 years ago, and my son is doing the same now. He has never had a semester without at least one course with an enrollment under 20 (as a freshman, he took freshman seminars both semesters - these are courses where enrollment is limited to freshmen, no more than 16, with professors from all over the university). Most semesters he has had two small enrollment courses.</p>
<p>Here's a link to the current course enrollment numbers - for the OP, if you're interested in anthropology, most of the anthro courses are small enrollment (my son has taken one anthro course, which had an enrollment under 10), and there are plenty in history too.</p>
<p>And if you want to match up the enrollments with the courses, here's a link to the course catalog:</p>
<p>Harvard</a> University FAS Registrar's Office: 2007-2008 FAS Courses of Instruction</p>
<p>TF's main concern: will I be able to complete my thesis? will I get a tenure track teaching position. (Many Harvard PhD will be jobless upon graduation; true in both humanities and sciences). Several (at least 25%) of my TFs failed to land academic positions upon completing their PhDs at Harvard. (see recent article in the Harvard Gazette). Some landed positions at state universities, and one ended up teaching at a community college.</p>
<p>Junior Faculty's (Assistant and Associate Professors) main concern: Will my second book (or 6+ additional articles) get me tenure? Answer: Unlikely.</p>
<p>Senior Faculty's Main Concern: working on the next research project, and consulting on the side. Some seniors do enjoy teaching--grad students and undergrads.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on who grades more harshly: the ones that know the least, and are most insecure about their position, the grad students. Ironically, the grad students who went to become stars (I have had a couple out of 25+TFs total) were most generous when it came to critiquing students' work.</p>
<p>While Ec10 is officially taught by a professor (Mankiw), I think it'd be fair to lump it in the intro math class/foreign language group, since all of the real learning is done in a grad-student led section.</p>