<p>I'm looking mostly at smaller colleges, but my parents made me look at Stanford while we were on vacation in the Bay area. On the tour, the guide mentioned casually that a bunch of the professors have Nobel prizes or the equivalent in their fields under their belt, that the professors regularly get a bunch of awards and research grants, and so forth, but he was quiveringly silent when I asked him the title question: how good are Stanford professors at teaching?</p>
<p>I’m not actually sure what the departments were. They were classes in CS, linguistics, computational math, Japanese literature, doing business in Asia. entrepreneurship, It would have been between 2004-2008.</p>
<p>I have 3 degrees from Stanford and have also taken classes at the following colleges – RPI, Syracuse, SUNY Albany, UCSD, and University of Wyoming. Of these 7 colleges, I felt teaching quality as a whole was superior at Stanford. I felt that some of the Stanford professors who have received top awards for their research are also quite exceptional at teaching. A good example is Robert Sapolsky, who has received a long list of impressive accolades, including a MacArthur genius grant. His books (the ones we used for textbooks) are so interesting that several of my friends who did not attend Stanford have read them for fun. His lectures are also quite interesting and engaging, particularly if you have any interest in endocrinological relations to behaviors. You can find some online. I had him for an intro biology class. A guy this accomplished taught a basic class to a group, which included a large portion of non-majors. There were also quite accomplished professors who were not stellar at teaching, a few who I’d say where quite poor, but overall the teaching was superior to all other colleges where I have taken classes. </p>
<p>One difference from other places, was a higher rate of professors who seemed to genuinely care about doing a good job at teaching the material at Stanford and students who were genuinely interested in learning the material. For example, I had a linear algebra class at SUNYA, where the professor mumbled through the lecture and left most of the class clueless, then left immediately. The students would make fun of his teaching style frequently when not in the room. It’s the only class I’ve ever taken where the majority of the class failed. I was 1 of only 3 students whose grades on earlier tests were high enough to qualify to take the final. </p>
<p>You can read reviews about how students feel about professors on many sites, such as <a href=“http://www.ratemyprofessors.com”>http://www.ratemyprofessors.com</a> . Personally, I haven’t used the site and have little confidence in the accuracy or usefulness. However, the comments about Sapolsky sound accurate, all giving extreme acclaim and near perfect ratings in all categories except “easiness”. One reviewer writes,</p>
<p>“Best teacher I’ve had — hands down. And probably the best class I’ve taken at Stanford. There are simply no words to describe the experience. He is funny, animated, approchable, makes materal accessable for understanding, and just blows your mind by the connections he makes between different fields. You are literally on the edge of the seat…”</p>
<p>@Data10 , how accessible was Prof Sapolsky regarding office hours, research, etc.? Also, does anyone have any experience comparing the professors at similarly “ranked” colleges and universities? (I’m operating under the assumption that high schoolers looking at Stanford rarely also look at University of Wyoming or SUNY Albany (oos); #RPIMedalistSwag, however.) Harvard seems notorious for having grad students teach everything and teach it poorly, and whether this is true I don’t know. I visited Dartmouth in the heart of winter, visited a class taught by Andrew McCann, and after class was over asked the students in the class—all 17 of them—if all their other professors were that good; “yes” was the general consensus. I had similar experiences at Amherst and Williams. How does Stanford teaching compare to the teaching at a school with an expressed dedication to undergrads and undergrads alone?</p>
<p>Like any other school, some professors enjoy teaching more than others. Students use courserank.com to post reviews on classes and professors. </p>
<p>My daughter liked Sapolsky’s lectures in bio 42, (you can watch them online) but he only gave a few lectures in a very large lecture hall. She’s also had a few professors that were less engaging. </p>