How accessible are Ga tech professors?

[gthopeful]

<p>

The weed-out classes don’t determine a prof.'s temperament. These are difficult classes to get good grades in because of the way they are curved due to the large number of bright students taking them. People unjustly assume that the teachers are unapproachable because their classes are difficult. If you need help, go see them after class (prof. often linger around for a while), during office hours, or see your TA.

</p>

<p>As a graduate student working in one of the schools that has a lot of weed out courses, I get to hear the faculty/staff side of the story. The common gripes I hear are this:</p>

<ol>
<li> Students don’t come to class</li>
<li> Students don’t utilize office hours. I was officemates with a few TA’s from the weedout courses and there were perhaps 2 or 3 people out of their sections of 20 that would ever come to office hours. Those students got either A’s or B’s, by the way.</li>
<li> Students are poorly prepared. I have heard complaints that they simply cannot ask some types of difficult questions anymore. This is verified by looking over the past 20 years of exams for that class and seeing how easy the tests are today by comparison (many are even totally multiple choice).</li>
</ol>

<p>ANY Tech student can address items 1 and 2; 3 is a bit tougher and sadly is just a product of how crappy high school education has gotten.</p>