<p>Are TA's that bad? I've heard that I'll be getting TA's for the next four to five years. Is that true? Are they all harsh graders? Can I avoid the bad profs and TA's if I take courses strategically? Are there any departments that don't have as many TA's. And which departments have small classes? I've heard of some --like psych-- that have 100 person lectures at the 400 level.</p>
<p>Which departments suck? I hear bad things about the art school and communication department. Anything else I should avoid?</p>
<p>I haven't had a single class taught by a TA. I had one class with a discussion group led by a TA and he was great, very approachable, but that was only once a week. Don't worry about it...I don't think there's a specific department that "sucks."</p>
<p>TA's are mainly discussion leaders while professors generally do the lecturing. TA's can be great, but they can be horrible, like many things in life. Lower level math and English classes are almost always taught by TA's due to the number of students taking these intro classes. You just have to be lucky to get the right one. For classes that are based on papers and such (anything subjective), your TA will be giving grades. They will also be judging your level of class participation, depending on type of discussion. Certain discussion sections are actual discussions (English, philosophy, etc.) while others (stats, econ) are more like review sessions of the material covered in lecture.</p>
<p>Intro econ TA's (101 and 102) are notoriously bad for their poor English. From my experience, I think they have too many international students as TA's.</p>
<p>I've found all my professors very approachable. They're more than happy to meet with you individually. My sociology professor even went through the trouble of helping me plan out like...my future...and getting me research and getting to know me personally.
That's what one of my cousin's said was nice about UMich as opposed to the educations she got in Taiwan and Harvard: the professors are very friendly.
My biggest class so far was Shakespeare with Ralph Williams, but that doesn't count since it was 1 credit and open to the public.</p>
<p>Intro classes:
Math 295 - 25 people
Math 296 - 15 people (admittedly, 295/296 is diff since it's the theoretical honors sequence)
Physics 140 lecture - 150 people
Physics 140 discussion - 20 people
Eng 125 - 12 people</p>
<p>Upper level:
Anthrbio 362 - 70 people
Polsci 306 - 40 people
Polsci 391 lecture - 70 people
Polsci 391 discussion - 10 people
Polsci 317 - 40 people (believe me, it felt like you were the only person in the class...Socratic method, singled out, tough law questions, expected to know all background from questions to meticulous detail, yelled at...like in Legally Blonde)
Slavic 490 - 40 people
Eng 483 - 250 people
Soc 430 - 15 people</p>
<p>So the classes are small. What about the teachers? Are the TA's overly harsh graders...do they speak English? Is it possible to avoid the mostly big classes?</p>
<p>My TA (they're actually called GSIs at Michigan) spoke English...he was for polsci. But, I've only had one GSI. You basically plan out your schedule as you like it...yo can basically guess which classes are going to be big and which are going to be small. Big classes really aren't any worse, in my experience.</p>
<p>Non-Chalant1...it's not THHAAAAT bad...the professor has a sense of humor...most of the time. There was one time that he questioned the class on a court case mentioned with two other court cases in one sentence...in a 250 page reading...and no one knew it. (He went down the class roster and questioned each person individually.) He got really ****ed, threw us out, and told us to go read. I think a lot of pre-law take that class, but it's not graded THAT hard.</p>
<p>michiganman: Oh boy, I sound like one of those "Michigan is infallible" people...and I do admit, I have liked just about...every single thing about Michigan...I'd say a 5, the weakest classes teaching-wise were probably English 124 and Anthrbio 362...I enjoyed English 124, but I felt like I could have been challenged to think more and Anthrbio 362 was basically a blow-off class, he professor was an old, head-up-in-the-clouds Harvard guy who couldn't work a computer. His mindless babbles were entertaining... I missed a third of the classes, but apparently, he thought my final paper was awesome (He met with all his students to discuss their work individually at the end) so I got an A...that was the most amazing grade pull-off I have ever done in my life. The paper, however, had little to do with his teaching, so even though I learned a lot on my own, my learning wasn't really due to the prof.</p>
<p>Dilksy, I'm taking harder classes than the majority of math majors...you know, the ones you call "fake math majors"? (Not only does he look down upon English majors, he only has respect for the best of the best math majors, refer to "easiest major" thread.)</p>
<p>Christine123, I hope UMich is as good to me as it has been to you. The math classes are a bit intimidating, considering that they're filled with econ, pre-business, and pre-med students.</p>
<p>I hope you have an awesome experience, too! And don't forget the engineering students in the math classes...they're pretty darn smart, but I'm sure you'll be fine if you keep up with the material (unlike what happened with me and physics...<em>ahem</em>).</p>