<p>I just read this opinion article in the Crimson (<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=509107%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=509107</a>) about how prevalent TFs - bad TFs at that - are at Harvard. Of course I've heard the rumors that professors are unreachable and that many classes are taught by graduate students. I had decided that, if I'm lucky enough to get in there, I'd just put a lot of energy into breaking down any walls that existed between me and my professors. Then I read this, and it has given me more reason to be concerned.</p>
<p>The article, for those of you who don't want to read it, is pretty bleak. Once and for all, can someone clarify all of this? What has the academic experience been like for you?</p>
<p>(1) College newspaper columnists tend to be very negative about their schools... not to say that many of the points aren't valid, but a columnist won't get very far if all they do is sing the praises of their institution... dirt & scandal sell.</p>
<p>(2) Here is how classes generally work at ALL major RESEARCH universities (Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, etc.): you meet 3 hours per week for lectures, almost always with a professor. Large lectures are broken down into smaller sections of approx. 8-16 students, who meet 1-2 hours per week for group discussions. In general, you will spend approx. 20 hours per week in class, and will spend at least that much time a week reading & studying on your own.</p>
<p>(3) Contrary to popular belief, Harvard is NO better nor worse than any other large research university in this regard. </p>
<p>(4) All professors have office hours... most of which go unused because students rarey attend... you can get excellent individual attention by being a regular attender of office hours.</p>
<p>The only classes taught exclusively by graduate students are first year of foreign language. The way most classes go that I have taken (I am not a sci/math major):
a) small seminar with 15 or less students and a prof. meets 3 hrs a wk, all at once.
b) lecture that meets for 1 or 1 1/2 hrs, 2 times a week. professor lectures during this time. then 1 hr section led by a graduate student. sections are usually around 10 people.</p>
<p>I am a senior, and I've had more good TFs than bad TFs. I have only had one really bad TF. I've had two amazing TFs with whom I still keep in contact. They've written me recs for summer internships and programs. I think that this editorial is overreacting, as most Crimson editorials are. Not many people here take the Crimson seriously because they try to stir up drama. They are infamous for misquoting people- I think nearly everyone has been misquoted. That is, when they don't just quote each other (the editors). Also, profs and TFs all hold office hours. They really want you to come- some profs I've had even eat dinner in an undergraduate house weekly and invite students to join him/her for lunch. You definately have interaction with your professors.</p>
<p>Hey--I'm a CrimEd! Everyone has their issues with the paper, but I don't think editorial column exaggeration is THC's fault--the population of people who end up writing editorial columns is sort of self-selecting toward the whiny. (No offense to the good columnists, of which there are many.) Anyhow, I'm not a math or science concentrator myself, but I've taken six science courses, and in none of them did I have any problems understanding my TF. Actually, my math/science TFs were pretty much uniformly excellent. Three of them were the best TFs I've ever had. One nice thing is that in math and science courses you're usually not graded on section participation, so you can go to whichever section has the best TF, even if it's not the section you're assigned to. </p>
<p>The columnist is right about the fact that humanities sections are pretty often unendurable and full of people making insipid or ridiculous comments to show off or get a decent participation grade. When this is the TF's fault I think it's not because they won't take a stance but because they ask really vague or ridiculous questions that nobody can understand and so only the ballsiest BSers or people most desperate to get a grade will answer them. (Or otherwise they ask questions that require an eidetic memory of the reading, and you get a similar effect.)</p>
<p>A lot of professors are really friendly. You do have to actually go to office hours (or corner them on the way into/out of class) but I know profs who do the following: hold office hours in the dining hall, invite students to weekly tea, require (or strongly encourage) everyone in the class to visit them at office hours, hold class in their homes, have half-hour question-and-answer periods after each lecture, have weekly lunches like EAS mentioned, attend weekly informal "sherry hours" with the students, etc. Now, a friend of mine at a LAC goes to bars and watches DVDs with one of his profs, and I don't know anyone at Harvard who's quite that close to a professor, but it's not like they live at the top of ivory towers and you need to climb a rope to talk to them. I just think most students don't really take advantage of the opportunities to interact with profs because they're intimidated.</p>
<p>Oh also 2 TFs I've had have invited us to their houses and cooked us dinner. These were 2 anthropology TFs. They don't get paid to do that and I think it shows they care.</p>
<p>Phoenixy- don't you write arts reviews? I guess it would be hard to misquote someone in a play...as it is, after all, in the script. LOL.</p>
<p>I'm a freshman here, and I'll admit to being a little disappointed with my TFs. My chem TF has been something of a disaster. He routinely messes up problems, comes late, forgets things, etc. Nice guy (and a nice grader!) but not really what I was hoping for. A bio TF of mine is alright, but very nervous and doesn't really get into much depth. My psych TF is the best (and has the most experience). It's the only class where I walk out of section feeling like I've really learned something.</p>
<p>But... I've only had 1 month of class. My perspective by the end of the semester might be completely different.</p>
<p>Harvard's provost is teaching my psych class. I went to his office hours last friday, had a really cool discussion about brain scanning as a more perfect form of lie detection (among other things). He's former head of NIMH...</p>