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<p>But that does not mean they are sitting around with nothing to do. They are reading the literature, planning the next set of grant applications, supervising the people who actually do the work in the lab, sitting on committees… More teaching would take time away from this. Plus, this applies to the top people, who already have or are about to get tenure. The people hired as new assistant professors need to guard their time and turn out results or they will never get promoted.</p>
<p>Besides, as Hanna notes, the students want to be taught by “real” Harvard faculty, not someone who could not get a faculty job, but was hired to teach an intro course. So “qualified” in this context means “was offered and took a regular faculty job at Harvard”. It does not simply mean “has a reasonable mastery of the material in an introductory course”</p>
<p>Not only do many Harvard students see their first B’s and C’s of their lives, they for the first time experience the joy of no longer being the smartest kid in the room. Of being no where close, and confronting an assignment that they could not do in their sleep after sleeping through class. Some have been special for so long that they have a hard time adjusting to being normal.</p>