<p>Current USC students and alums seem to be very enthusiastic about their experiences at the school, but I seldom hear much said about the quality of the teaching. Although I don't give a lot of credence to an individual students review of a professor on student evaluation sites like ratemprofessors.com, I do think the cumulative weight of multiple students' reviews is worth considering. USCs composite professor evaluation score on rmp.com is lower than that of any comparably-sized school I have seen. And in looking at the ratings of professors teaching GE courses (both large lectures and smaller Arts & Letters classes), there seemed to be a significant number who received luke-warm to poor ratings. I know that at a large research-focused institution, not all professors are stellar teachers and you have to navigate around the poor ones. However, I am concerned that at USC, mediocre teachers will be difficult to avoid. Any thoughts by those with first-hand experience?</p>
<p>You will find good and bad teachers no matter where you go. And what’s good for one person will be bad for another. Ultimately, cumulative rankings don’t matter because you are not a cumulative aggregate of students, you are yourself. My advice: don’t worry about it so much.</p>
<p>It really varies. But, for every “bad” teacher I had, I was rewarded with five amazing professors. </p>
<p>Also, some professors are just inherently better at teaching different subjects within their area of expertise; sophomore year, I had a class with a professor and I grew to LOATHE both him and his teaching style. I was upset to find he was the professor for a class I really wanted to take senior year – but I ended up enrolling and discovering he was actually a very intelligent, knowledgeable and engaging professor in a smaller classroom environment and with a different area of focus. I loved his class. He actually became the teacher who wrote my graduate school recommendation!</p>
<p>Also, with GE professors – some aren’t passionate about teaching freshman and sophomores, but some are! I had two GE professors I didn’t really enjoy, one I was lukewarm on, but loved the rest.</p>
<p>So, be open minded and understand, too, that there will always be some professor (or TA) with whom you don’t “gel.” Not everyone can have a teaching style that is most effective for you.</p>