<p>What's next? Will Pluto regain its planet status?</p>
<p>From Harvard's hometown paper, The Boston Globe:</p>
<p>
[quote]
For the past dozen years, fair Harvard had not fared particularly well in the US News & World Report rankings of the nation's best colleges, at least by its own exalted standards. It had been that long since the Ivy League powerhouse had held the top spot by itself. Finishing second the past two years, to Princeton of all places, was a particular affront. It was enough to make the blue bloods boil.</p>
<p>But today, order has been restored to its universe, with Harvard University again master of all it surveys. The Cambridge institution surpassed archrivals Princeton University and Yale University to reclaim the top spot in the undergraduate rankings, an annual rite of celebration and high-handed dismissal in education circles.
<p>We'll see when the University's own COFHE survey is issued later this year (and leaked to the Crimson). I expect Harvard will rise from its current position as 27th (of the 31 participating schools) in academic quality and quality of campus life. - how much, I don't know.</p>
<p>Harvard can keep its ranking and if your goal is to have Harvard's status rub off on you , to there. But as far as I can tell Harvard undergrads are taught by TA's.</p>
<p>I'm just waiting for the day when Stanford is ranked number one. But then again if that happened, the rage and confusion that would be experienced by appalled Crimsons will manifest itself as a black hole that would compress the Earth into a singularity.</p>
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<p>But as far as I can tell Harvard undergrads are taught by TA's.<<</p>
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<p>This is incorrect. My daughter just graduated from Harvard this June. And in her four years there, with the sole exception of Expository Writing which was taught by a published author, every one of her classes was taught by a professor. </p>
<p>Some classes also had study section groups that met outside the lectures to help with problem sets, etc., and those were typically led by TFs - just as they are at most of the top universities, including Harvard's peer schools. But the classes themselves were taught by professors.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I'm just waiting for the day when Stanford is ranked number one. But then again if that happened, the rage and confusion that would be experienced by appalled Crimsons will manifest itself as a black hole that would compress the Earth into a singularity.<<</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Nope. Stanford has already been ranked #1 by USNWR back in prior decades, and none of that happened.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Some classes also had study section groups that met outside the lectures to help with problem sets, etc., and those were typically led by TFs - just as they are at most of the top universities, including Harvard's peer schools. But the classes themselves were taught by professors.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, and every paper is read, graded, and commented in great details by a full tenured professor. And every exam is prepared and graded by full tenured professors. And the same full tenured professors are available around the clock to students. </p>
<p>Indeed, just as it happens at most of the top universities! Or at least that is how the story goes!</p>
<p>Xiggi:
It is far better to have your paper read, commented on and graded by a TA who is responsible for 18 students than by a tenured prof who has 55 students in one class and 45 in another (at a well-known LAC). Believe me, the kind of exams that can be given when you have one week to return 100 papers and exams is different from the exams you give when you know the TA will read only 18. And the length and quality of the comments is also markedly different. </p>
<p>But more to the point, I have not seen much difference over the last three years that would warrant Harvard and Princeton trading places.</p>
<p>Only some papers are read, graded, and commented on by tenured professors at top universities. It all depends on the professor and the class (don't expect a professor to grade your paper in a large lecture, but they definitely might do so in a seminar, small lecture, ).</p>
<p>Every paper isn't read, graded, and commented on in great detail by tenured professors at some of the top LACs. I know for a fact that Williams, a school of around 2,000, uses undergrad TAs to help during labs, and grade tests and even grade essays. It's nowhere near as rampant as it is at top universities, but it does happen.</p>
<p>Well, being 27th likely means there is plenty of room for improvement.</p>
<p>(My d. says she didn't have a TA grade a test or essay in four years. She did meet one once, in a logic class.</p>
<p>I was a TA once (Chicago). The interesting part of that was that, in many instances, I feel quite certain I could have delivered a better lecture than some of the fully tenured full profs I worked for. I had more up-to-date information and simply knew more about where the field had gone than they did. (and I would likely have been more amusing.) What I couldn't do better was advise students, lead class discussions, or provide the best possible feedback on essays, which is what I was paid to do.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It is far better to have your paper read, commented on and graded by a TA who is responsible for 18 students than by a tenured prof who has 55 students in one class and 45 in another (at a well-known LAC).
[/quote]
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<p>On the surface, I have no reasons to disagree with such conclusion, except that not all well-known LACs have classes of 45 or 55 students AND that not all schools that use TF, TA, or GF are able to trust their students to well-prepared and competent TAs. I believe that the balance between quantity and quality is extremely variable, depending on the type of classes taught and the ... university. However, one commonality about the TA is the amazing great lengths taken by defenders of the hybrid system to downplay the role of the TA, especially the canard about "no classes" are "taught" by TAs, but only "sections." The combination of a large lecture supplemented by additional instruction in smaller groups does evidently work, but this does not eliminate the less than ideal combination of a class in a HUGE lecture hall only supplemented by a poorly trained and , at times, incomprehensible TA.</p>
<p>I'm curious about the COFHE study mini mentions. It's not published on the COFHE website. Is it confidential? Does anyone know if it's available online?</p>
<p>Too late to edit. I understand that the results are not published. It appears that only Harvard had the misfortune of having its results leaked?</p>
<p>I speak from personal information. Remember that one of my Ss attended a LAC? But those statistics come from another LAC. At Harvard, S's classes have ranged from 4 to 200, with the majority at less than 20.</p>
<p>Marite, although that might not have been clear from my posts, I really was not criticizing Harvard. My first comment was a reply to Coureur about the role of TAs. Although his comment was directed at his D's experience at Harvard, my reply was more generic in nature. </p>
<p>I do know that you are placed to compare Harvard and one of the largest LAC in the country. However, albeit not comparable to yours, I am also able to compare my own experience to my sister's at a large research university. While I never had the pleasure of being guided by a TA, she has had them in EVERY class, except for an introductory seminar. And, again, all her papers were directed and graded by TAs. While some were excellent, others were a bit ... different. This should not be a real problem unless the TA is able to orient the class in a direction that corresponds to his or her political or sexual orientations. While one can decide about choice of professors by reading his or her published material, it is not that easy to accomplish with TAs, and it is not always possible to avoid the TAs from hell.</p>
<p>Well, I know (from her having met first-year grad students) that, in her first year of graduate school, my d. will be acting as a praeceptor at the former #1, and will indeed be expected to grade papers and essays. Whether she's worth $50k a year will be for others to decide. ;)</p>
<p>TA's are usually ok at Harvard, but my d this past semester had a situation with a TA who graded a final and left the country. There were a number of students complaining about their grades and the professor didn't have a clue as to what was going on.</p>
<p>I had a class in which 40% of the grade was homework. The TA skipped town with the last half of our problem sets and they were never graded. This wasn't at Harvard, though.</p>