<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page</a></p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>That's awesome! :D Go Blue!</p>
<p>Pretty cool eh?! hehe Go blue!</p>
<p>"One concern about academics at the U-M is that many courses, including upper-level courses, are taught by Graduate Student Instructors, or teaching assistants. In 2005, The Princeton Review ranked U-M seventh worst in the category of "teaching assistants teach too many upper-level courses." Another concern is the high level of educational expenses for a public institution, especially for out-of-state undergraduate students, who pay about $27,000 annually for tuition alone. "</p>
<p>Any feedback on the above?</p>
<p>heh..see previous threads of UM's value for OOS students</p>
<p>Hopeful, GSIs teaching classes is a myth at Michigan. They only teach intro to college writing and Calculus I and maybe Calculus II. All other classes at Michigan at taught by professors and GSIs only lead discussion groups of 15-25 students. </p>
<p>As for the cost of Michigan, it is actually cheaper than comparable universities. Yes, Michigan costs $27,000, but Cornell, Columbia, Penn etc...all cost over $30,000 and they aren't better than Michigan in any way.</p>
<p>Alexandre,
Thanks for setting the record straight. I need to visit Ann Arbor first hand next month and see the campus for myself</p>
<p>I agree with Alexandre. The GSIs are only involved in the discussion sections in all of my classes. They aren't actually teaching the material.</p>
<p>I have a GSI teaching my language (Spanish) classes. However, he's a GOOD instructor so I don't mind. Plus, he's from Spain so he knows what he's saying. (In fact, I purposely enrolled in the section that I'm in for Spanish 231 so that I could have the same person that I had for Spanish 103 last semester. I think that's saying something.)</p>
<p>Other than that, the GSIs do stay mostly in the discussions.</p>
<p>My GSI in astronomy was horribly incompetent actually. After looking at my astro grade on wolverine access, I e-mailed my GSI to recalculate my discussion grade. Sure enough, it was calculated incorrectly, and my final grade was boosted a half grade. The other ones I've had have been great, though.</p>
<p>Actually, Spanish has been a problem area because when it's hard to hire Spanish instructors on short notice (when the class is large, they find that out after May and they need more lead time to get a Spanish instructor for Fall. Spanish tends to be a language many students want so big entering classes means a need for more sections). </p>
<p>Thus, it doesn't surprise me they might have had to get a GSI to teach Spanish.</p>
<p>LOL... I guess I should clarify myself. (I thought about editing my above post, but I didn't in the end.) I THINK he's a GSI. I'm actually not completely sure, but I have a feeling that he is. He's too young to be a professor! :) I could be wrong though. I guess I lucked out a little bit since he's a really good instructor no matter what he is (Hence why it was worth putting myself through lots of stress over break trying to get myself into one of his already filled sections... Well, I won so ha!). Plus, I think he's graduating this spring or something so he's not on the extremely young side either. (PS: I hope he teaches for one reason or another next fall and they assign him to Spanish 232 so that I can have him as my instructor for my final semester of the language requirement. I will work my butt off again to get into his section if they do. Yes, I know that's wishful thinking, but you never know.)</p>
<p>On a side note... Yeah, Spanish does seem to be a pretty popular language here. When they try getting each class down to approximately twenty students, I can see that they may go to GSIs for help teaching the classes. To me, that's not a really big deal because everyone who I've interacted with in that department really seems to know his/her stuff. :)</p>