<p>Now that my first son is safely admitted to his first choice college and I have two years before the next one will be going through this admissions game, I take a step back to consider what we just went through. One of the things I find fascinating is that there is so little dialogue on the various college boards about how strong the faculty of a certain college is. There seems to be an assumption that by and large the faculty at college X is as "good" as that at college Y. One of the most exciting parts of going to the college I went to was the opportunity to study with particular faculty who were really rock stars in their fields--and stellar teachers. But these days we get swept up in the idiotic USN&WR rankings, and I rarely find any mention about the particular faculty our kids will have the opportunity to be around for four years.</p>
<p>The colleges' websites and colorful propaganda they send to our mailboxes also seem to lack much emphasis on their faculty as well. But these days, it is quite easy to google about these brilliant professors, see them speak on YouTube, and get a really detailed idea about what they are like and what they do. I did a little research on some of the professors in my son's areas of interest, showed him their YouTubes and even papers they had written, and that helped us to separate out one college from the other in a way that all of the other guides and brochures did not. This is also a great way to help your kid start thinking about which classes/professors to take in the fall, I think.</p>
<p>So why don't colleges use the strength of their faculty more directly as a magnet to attract our best and brightest kids?</p>
<p>I think they do or at least try to but sometimes they refine it down to some quick stats like how many of the faculty are Nobel Laureates, National Medal of Science winners, Fields medal winners, etc.</p>
<p>Of course, some of the best instructors aren’t the profs who are the recipients of these awards.</p>
<p>My D who went to UCSD audited a class (not her major) after being pretty impressed watching a Neuroscience prof there who did a PBS special on some strange things that happen in the brain (Dr. V.S. Ramachandran - author of ‘Phantoms of the Brain’). He was excellent in the special and she said he was the course as well.</p>
<p>I’m not sure how she would have been able to find out beforehand about the profs who happened to turn out to be the best ones she had. All the Nobel Laureates, etc. who happen to be at the school but weren’t her profs or who she had no contact with probably had next to no impact on her experience there.</p>
<p>The problem with deciding based on specific faculty strength is that a student’s interests are unlikely to remain within the exact departmental subspecialty initially identified in high school.</p>
<p>That’s a great point, UC Dad…My thesis advisor, who had the greatest impact on me only had had 3 years of college teaching behind her when I first started to work with her. She went on to have an illustrious career and received several international awards–but at that time she was “just” an Assistant Professor of History.</p>
<p>I come around again to the feeling that prompted me to write the original post–that colleges seem to be promoting a particular life style, using all of the same marketing techniques that you would use to sell a car, and what gets really deemphasized is the quality of the experiences that the kids are going to have (or CAN have if they are seeking that in the first place) in college with their teachers. In my case and I am sure in many of yours as well, the experience of being in a learning community with really smart, knowledgeable teachers had a huge impact on me. I regret that so many college-bound students are not focused so much on that, and part of the fault lies in the way colleges market themselves.</p>
<p>I think that’s an interesting observation, morganhill. I’m thinking that the colleges, at the level of the administration particularly, prefer to market their school as fabulous apart from the great professors they may or may not have. That way they are less dependent on the care and feeding of their faculty. I don’t think they want to give their profs that much power, cynic that I am.</p>
<p>These days, many undergrads do research, especially at the top tier schools. And if they plan to go to grad school, the rep of their undergrad mentor can make all the difference.</p>
<p>^I would add that your best bet for graduate school (academic, not professional) would be to work with well known faculty on research as an undergraduate.</p>
<p>It makes a difference if you know what you want to major in and stick to that plan. Both my h and I did that, chose the same school which was very strong in both departments, and got a great education. My children are a different matter- my oldest thought he was interested in one area so he ended up going to a college with a good specialization in that area. Unfortunately, he changed majors, and then had to eventually leave the school. He ended up at a local state school which actually turned out to have a much better department in his major. My next is totally unsure of what she wants to major (but most likely a social science) since her eventually aim is law school. I am now checking out departments for her in her schools where she has applied and been accepted. But I think that she may very well end up doing different majors depending on which school she chooses- so if school A has a strong political science department and school B is stronger in psychology, she may choose Poly sci in school A but if she chooses school B she would end up in psych. </p>
<p>With my youngest, it may be much more relevant. She wants to do engineering and currently is interested in bio-engineering (I think that’s the term- engineering of body parts). Her other current idea is to do a 3/2 program so if she was doing that, she needs to find a school with good physics and biology (specifically anatomy).</p>