Liberal Arts College = More writing than state u?

[warblersrule]

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@tk21769

I’m not too clear, though, about how TAs might affect this pattern at some big research universities. Berkeley’s average class sizes are among the smallest of any research university. It still has many very large lecture classes, but they typically are accompanied by break-out sections led by TAs. These sections often have 25-30 students (according to the online course schedules). That still would be a lot of 5 or 10 page papers to grade, especially if you’re pursuing your own doctoral research. So I’m skeptical that very many research universities leverage TAs to provide as much writing and discussion as you’d get at a small school where 70% of classes have fewer than 20 students, all taught by professors.

As much as I hate to debunk that amusingly rosy view of graduate student life, I can assure you that TAs can and routinely do grade as many (if not more) papers a term as any LAC professor on top of our own classes and research. I’ve taught 50 students a quarter for the past five years – you REALLY don’t want to see how many exams and assignments I’ve had to grade each term. </p>

<p>It’s the medium classes that allow a student to skate by, classes in the 50-80 (or so) student range. They’re too large for a professor to grade writing assignments but often too small to require TAs. Sometimes they even have multiple choice/scantron exams. A decidedly meh way of teaching college classes, IMO.</p>