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It’s more likely NAS members teach undergrads than a college or university that don’t have any NAS members. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>^^George Smoot was teaching Intro Physics at Cal when he got a call from Stockholm in '06…</p>
<p>Well, fine. I don’t think anyone disputes that the best public schools have a world class faculty.</p>
<p>But, the overall strength of the undergraduate body relative to that of the faculty is deplorable. </p>
<p>And, some may have beef with the reality that public schools derive the greater part of their reputations from the strength of their faculty rather than from the strength of their undergrads.</p>
<p>Alex Filippenko, an amazing astronomer/prof and member of NAS, who’s been on numerous science documentaries, is teaching Astronomy C10 “Introduction to General Astronomy” in the Fall.</p>
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<p>And Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Caltech, et al, do NOT derive the greater part of their reputations from the strength of their faculty…??? :rolleyes:</p>
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Just because a university has a public mission to be open and give students access to top faculty is deplorable? In your little mind, only the wealthy top SAT scorers should have access to top profs? </p>
<p>****, you don’t even need to attend Berkeley to see these star profs teach, look at Berkeley’s Youtube channel…what other university does that…a private? Heh.</p>
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We even have photographic evidence…</p>
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</p>
<p>MIT. [Free</a> Online Course Materials | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm]Free”>MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials) I’m not disagreeing with you, though. Just saying the MIT offers a ton of free materials from world-class professors. And it’s a private school…</p>
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Why should anyone care about the “overall strength of the undergraduate body”? I agree that one’s peer group can be important, but I don’t think the two are necessarily related.</p>
<p>“And, some may have beef with the reality that public schools derive the greater part of their reputations from the strength of their faculty rather than from the strength of their undergrads.”</p>
<p>I have a beef with schools that are rated highly and do not have very strong faculty or academic departments.</p>
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<p>Well, here you have a picture of Smoot teaching UG the day after getting the phone call.</p>
<p>[George</a> F. Smoot - Photo Gallery](<a href=“http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html]George”>http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/smoot-photo.html)</p>
<p>You’ll also find a picture of him emerging from his office the day before. The caption reads “Nobel Laureate George Smoot emerges from his office at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, just hours after being awakened by a phone call from Sweden informing him of being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. With Smoot is his assistant, Melissa Barclay.” </p>
<p>Perhaps one should revise the statement "George Smoot was teaching Intro Physics at Cal when he got a call from Stockholm in '06: in light of this bit of info … “after being awakened by a phone call from Sweden informing him of being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics” </p>
<p>Students are the ones known to be asleep during lectures. I believe that Smoot is usually awake for those events. ;)</p>
<p>Oops, almost forgot, this is he link to the Class schedule of Fall 2006. It shows clearly</p>
<p>7B 69244 LEC 001 Smoot, G MWF 11-12 1 LECONTE 02 </p>
<p><a href=“http://physics.berkeley.edu/academics/Courses/Archive/F_06_C.pdf[/url]”>http://physics.berkeley.edu/academics/Courses/Archive/F_06_C.pdf</a></p>
<p>Someone might want to frame that document! I think it is pretty rare. A far as I know, Smoot taught the same class in the Fall of 2008. If it is a biennial event, he should teach it in the Fall of 2010 but the course schedule says otherwise. </p>
<p>Still pretty cool to have such recognized professor on staff. For all we know, a freshman who plays his or her cards well at Berkeley might have the chance to take this Physics class in his or her typical half dozen UG years.</p>
<p>^ xiggi, as a public university this information is well … public. Open for praise and ridicule. When will the top privates allow non-students access to enrollment and class info for comparison?</p>
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Unless, the student is able to get some lower division Physics courses waived due to getting 5s on the AP tests. :)</p>
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<p>UCB, I can’t speak for all privates, but I think that most school are pretty liberal with the posting of class schedules and courses. Although I have to say that UCB makes it extremely easy to uncork the past. It took me all of five minutes to dig the past teaching load of Prof. Smoot. This said, if I remember well, when I did something similar in the past, it seemed that I did miss classes that appeared on a different system and might require a student ID to access. </p>
<p>Fwiw, although my post was sweet and sour, there was no attempt to ridicule. In insight my quip about the half dozen years was not that nice … but one does not lose his stripes easily! I genuinely believe that Prof. Smoot’s adherence to a teaching schedule is remarkable. However, I believe that facts should trump any emotional bias. Either is teaching, or is not. If he teaches one class every two years, so be it. That does not make him less of an asset to UCB. On the other hand, it might be a tad farfetched to make naive 17 years old believe that attending UCB will offer many opportunities to do research with Prof. Smoot. </p>
<p>In the meantime, I do hope you enjoyed the pictures of the Nobel as much as I did!</p>
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Uh huh…</p>
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To classify a Berkeley undergrad taking 6 years to graduate as “typical” is being disingenuous.</p>
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Probably…but to think it would be any different if Smoot were at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, etc. is hard to say.</p>
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<p>Upon checking the multiple definitions of ridicule …</p>
<ol>
<li> mockery, raillery, sarcasm, satire, irony. </li>
<li> banter, chaff, rally, twit, burlesque, satirize, lampoon. Ridicule, deride, mock, taunt imply making game of a person, usually in an unkind, jeering way. </li>
</ol>
<p>To ridicule is to make fun of, either sportively and good-humoredly, or unkindly with the intention of humiliating: to ridicule a pretentious person. To deride is to assail one with scornful laughter: to deride a statement of belief.
To mock is sometimes playfully, sometimes insultingly, to imitate and caricature the appearance or actions of another: She mocked the seriousness of his expression.
To taunt is to call attention to something annoying or humiliating, usually maliciously and exultingly and often in the presence of others: to taunt a candidate about his defeat in an election.</p>
<p>I do have to plead guilty. I am sure that one of them must define exactly what I did. Next time, I’ll just post my kindest thoughts. And will preface my unkind thoughts with a warning such as /start scorn!</p>
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</p>
<p>2010-2011 Spring
[Harvard</a> University FAS Registrar’s Office](<a href=“http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/faculty/enrollment_stats.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=coursestats]Harvard”>http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/faculty/enrollment_stats.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=coursestats)</p>
<p>1999-2010 Fall, Fall
[Harvard</a> University FAS Registrar’s Office](<a href=“http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/faculty/previous_enrollment.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=coursestats]Harvard”>http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/faculty/previous_enrollment.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=coursestats)</p>
<p>Courses of Instruction
[Harvard</a> University FAS Registrar’s Office: Previous Courses of Instruction](<a href=“http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/courses/previous_courses.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=courses]Harvard”>http://www.registrar.fas.harvard.edu/fasro/courses/previous_courses.jsp?cat=faculty&subcat=courses)</p>
<p>Okay, now go make fun of Harvard.</p>
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<p>I hope you realize that ON THIS ACCOUNT I make no difference between the top public such as Berkeley, Michigan, or Wisconsin (see that Barrons!) and HYPS or other privates. It is simply an inescapable attribute of the large research universities. I do, however, make differences when it comes to the issue of TAs, where I do believe substantial differences do exist. </p>
<p>Fwiw, you do remember the book Ross Douthat wrote about his time at Harvard, don’t you. If not, check it out … [Amazon.com:</a> Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class (9781401301125): Ross…](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Privilege-Harvard-Education-Ruling-Class/dp/1401301126]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Privilege-Harvard-Education-Ruling-Class/dp/1401301126)</p>
<p>Thanks, kwu. <em>Gasp!</em> Lectures with 200-400 students?! How can they possibly learn and get close access to the profs?</p>
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Really? Are some top grad schools enrolling better teaching TAs than others? Please enlighten me.</p>