<p>With some of the big public schools my son is applying to for Aerospace Engineering, we have been hearing about a prevalence of profs who are difficult to understand as well as many who are excellent researchers but not good teachers. Can I get any insight from those of you in Engineering or who know people in Engineering (specifically Aerospace) as to your experience? I realize there is going to be some problem along these lines at every major university but I wanted to see how prevalent it was at UVA and whether it has been a real problem for you. Thanks.</p>
<p>My instructors universally have been excellent. I had one instructor who was difficult to understand (Asian), but he was a good teacher otherwise. </p>
<p>This is through 2 years in BME and CHE. Looking at the next two years, my professors all have great reputations and all except one are native English speakers. In my area, anyway, SEAS doesn't seem to be relying on instructors with heavy Asian accents. Dunno about Aerospace, however.</p>
<p>I've only had one "bad" teacher and that was PhysicsII. He was Polish so he was hard to understand and physics is just a hard topic to teach, no matter what. I think had I been in a smaller class, it would've been much easier, but I ended up only going to TA sessions and going through the book.</p>
<p>All my other teachers have been fantastic. You're never going to get great teachers anywhere, nor are you going to ever come across a teacher that meets 100% of your expectations. And, teachers often evolve to fit a class as the semester progresses, so even if it seems rough in the beginning, give them a chance.
On another note, many undergrad engineering teachers do minimal research work. Yes, they do some, but it never seems like enough to get in the way of teaching. So, they may be doing a lot, I don't know, but I do know they are extremely accessible. Also, the one teacher I had for circuits last year had grants for everything, and must've had 4 or 5 projects going on. But, he was always there to help whenever you needed it, so he handled it very very well.</p>
<p>As for the mech/aero dept, one of my roommates is a Mech and she seemed to always be able to reach her professors. All the teachers I've seen her go to for classes (maybe 5-6 over two semesters) seemed friendly, punctual, and engaging as people walked through the door. So, they seem pretty good.</p>