<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>I'm a freshman, and so far I have only had one class taught by an undergrad or TA, and that is Lifetime Fitness. Every other class I have had has been taught by a professor, and the professors were all very good about having office hours.</p>
<p>This may be a bit more than what everyone gets because I did place out of a bunch of intro classes, but none of my friends in intro classes have complained about being taught by TAs.</p>
<p>My only classes taught by TAs have been/are labs and Lifetime Fitness.</p>
<p>My son graduated from UNC in May. I asked him about TAs and he said that in four years he had only had 3 classes actually taught by TAs. There are TAs for many of the labs associated with science classes. In one class freshman year the TA (a Ph.D candidate) was so good and so engaging that it prompted him to look more deeply into the discipline and he eventually selected it as one of his majors. UNC limits the class size for English, Math and foreign languages. His advanced calculus class freshman year was about 40 students taught by a full professor; his friend at Penn (actually Wharton), taking the same class at the same time was in a class of over 300.</p>
<p>Once you are in upper division classes, size can drop dramatically. His average class size the last two years (outside of science classes) was probably less than 15 with several classes being less than 10.</p>
<p>On a side note, over the holidays we were at a gathering of some of his former HS classmates and their families. The kids that graduated from Harvard, U Penn and Yale all reported more interaction with TAs than he had had at UNC.</p>
<p>I think it's kind of hit or miss. I've actually had quite a few classes taught by TA's (I counted 10 total when I just looked at my transcript--all three of my foreign language classes, intro classes in both of my majors, and 4 or 5 other random 100-level classes). That said, TA's aren't necessarily a bad thing, as I've had several that were great, even better than some of the professors I've had.</p>
<p>Mostly? Nah. There are definitely a few intro classes taught by grad students. I have a grad student teaching my Basic Statistics class for example, but I don't really think I need a world renowned professor for that.</p>
<p>I've had a few really good TAs that taught my recitation sections, but I've had one or two crappy ones too. Once you get more advanced in your major, you'll see the class size drop as well as the number of grad students teaching/TAing. My freshman year I was a bit discouraged by it since I was taking mostly intro courses, but now it's fine.</p>
<p>So far, I have had one grad student teacher per semester, but both were PhD candidates in the City and Regional Planning department, teaching the core courses for the minor. The one I had last semester was amazing and gave excellent feedback (about 45 kids in the class); the one this semester looks promising as well.</p>
<p>Yeah....just because you have a TA doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to be a bad experience....all the TA's I've had are pretty good at teaching, especially for more basic topics of a subject.</p>
<p>I guess it depends. My Freshman year, I had 2 professors who taught big, intro classes. All of my maths were taught by TAs. My English 102 was taught by a TA. My AMST was taught by a TA. My Econ 410 was taught by a TA. All of my french classes were taught by a TA. Perhaps I was just unlucky. I don't know. UNC uses too many grad students to teach.</p>
<p>My mid level French class was taught by a TA because she was from France and it was a conversation class. She wasn't a very good teacher (we were her first American class I think, and her first class at the University).</p>
<p>Besides that, I've had pretty good TAs. My first year seminar was technically taught by grad students, but they were so far along in thier respective fields that they were doctors in everthing but title.</p>
<p>Life Time fitness is always taught by a TA, but you don't need a PhD to tell kids to throw a frisbee around.</p>
<p>And my Calc 2 class is taught by a TA, but I don't know how I feel about him yet.</p>
<p>Remember it's the person, not the degree that makes good teachers. Plus TA's are usually younger and more intune with their students.</p>
<p>When I first read this, I thought, "yeah, I've never had any TAs!" But I always kind of forget the definition of a TA. I'm dumb.</p>
<p>Anyway, my Anthropology 101 course this semester was taught by a grad student, but honestly, he was incredible. He'd been teaching Anth 101 for several years and is really involved with digs in Mongolia, and brought a lot of his work and experience into the classroom. I think the one thing about TAs that's nice is that they're really involved in current events in their discipline - they have to be!</p>
<p>I guess also one of my Japanese language recitation teachers was a TA, but that just... isn't a problem. Language recitations are really there just to do drills and make sure you understand things, not to teach you. Plus, with foreign language, I feel like you just want a native speaker, who's patient and knows how to teach language, and might also have some background in linguistics. My Japanese teacher could barely speak English, but that turned out to be a positive thing.</p>
<p>So, I guess I've had two, though honestly I wouldn't've done it any other way.</p>
<p>My Stat class is taught by a grad student. And Chem labs, recitations for poli are as well. Most of these graduate students are extremely helpful and intelligent, most earning their doctorates. I haven't had any problems with a TA/grad student.</p>
<p>One of my favorite classes since I've been at Carolina (French 260; Survey of French Literature) was taught by a TA--he was amazing; the whole class loved him & he even received a teaching award for his fabulous work.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that your interaction with TAs (which definitely is not necessarily negative!) diminishes significantly after your first year or when you start to take your major courses, whichever comes first.</p>