<p>Any current students care to comment as to whether a majority of their undergraduate courses are taught by grad students and TAs rather than by instructors and professors whose names appear in the course catalog?</p>
<p>Almost every course is professor-taught. TAs are used to provide extra out-of-class help, run labs and discussions, and help grade. Main lectures are professors.</p>
<p>Professors</p>
<p>Professors teach the vast majority of classes. The exceptions, as shoe mentioned, are labs, discussion sections, Q&A sessions, etc. However, for some labs, the professors will teach the prelab lecture. Professors hold office hours if you prefer to ask them questions directly. They make themselves available; it's just up to you to go and take advantage of what they offer.</p>
<p>Yeah, my S is a third year, and as far as I know has had a professor for every class. As others mentioned, grad students are there for labs and extra help, which is a fine use of grad students. Frankly, this factor is a big reason he went to UVA instead of Ga Tech.</p>
<p>classes where TAs teach: All language courses 101-202, calc 131/132, small econ 201/202 classes. I'm sure there are others.</p>
<p>I had a professor for calc 132.</p>
<p>I had a TA for calc 132, but the TA was really, really good!! No regrets.
My 202 language was taught by a professor>>also, very good.
TA's exist but they can have a positive impact, most are good. Usually one will find them in the labs or discussion groups.</p>
<p>
[quote]
lasses where TAs teach: All language courses 101-202
[/quote]
</p>
<p>not true. TAs may teach more of the popular languages (i.e. Spanish, French), but for all of the others, they're taught by professors. Urdu, Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Persian, and Sanskrit are just some.</p>
<p>I'll make note next time I want to take Swahili...</p>
<p>Actually, jags861, the input above yours is really helpful. S applied to UVa specifically because of its strength in CNLs and intends to study Arabic and Persian. Db123, thank you for posting that, it is actually really good to know.</p>
<p>My first-year floormate is a TA for Arabic lolz.</p>
<p>There are some brilliant TAs out there. Except for one bad one last semester, my impression of their presence in UVA coursework has been pretty good.</p>