<p>Are the professors at MSU helpful, do they get to know your name, is it hard to meet with them when you need help, etc...?</p>
<p>Also are a lot of the classes taught by Teaching Assistants?</p>
<p>There are so many different profs at MSU that you can’t really make a general statement that is worth much.</p>
<p>Most of my professors have been helpful but only if you seek it out. If you don’t go to office hours and make an effort by doing to homework and reading they aren’t going to help you much.</p>
<p>I’ve had a handful of profs that know my name. Sometimes they will learn your name in a smaller class, particularly if it is a small summer class. However you can’t count on it. Smaller classes range from 30 to 80 people plus the smaller class probably isn’t the only thing they are teaching/working on.</p>
<p>It hasn’t been hard for me to meet with most of my professors. Many are in their office hours and they are happy to schedule other hours with you if you can’t meet with them. I have had one prof who was a complete idiot (I want to use a few other words here) who was NEVER in her office and you couldn’t get a hold of but I feel like she is a minority.</p>
<p>I’ve had a real mix on if I feel professors are approachable or not. Some are really easy to walk up to and ask questions to while others are hard to walk up to to talk to. Most are somewhere in the middle or leaning towards the first.</p>
<p>I’ve never had a class taught entirely by a TA. It does happen occasionally in the summer but the TAs that are put in charge are generally working closely with a professor. I’ve had TAs that taught a week or two of a class before and they do a good job, though not as good as the professor because they are still learning. They are more approachable if you have questions though because they are well aware that they are not that experience with teaching.</p>
<p>The only thing I’ve had that was taught entirely by a TA are my recitations for a class. These are where the TA goes over homework problems or a worksheet. The professor for the class will teach you to do the problems but the TA actually goes over the answers and steps.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to generalize as MSU is such a big school, but in my experience:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The professors will not hold your hand, but if you seek help and want to learn they will be helpful.</p></li>
<li><p>In smaller classes, especially higher level classes within your major, professors generally will learn your name as long as you participate. In a large lecture it’s unlikely that you’re going to get noticed unless you really make an effort (going to office hours, asking questions in lecture frequently, etc.)</p></li>
<li><p>Most of the professors I have had were very easy to meet with. Professors are required to have regular office hours, and pretty much every professor I have had has been willing to make appointments if you’re unable to attend office hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Most courses are not taught by TAs exclusively, as the above poster said typically recitations (a smaller class session within a large lecture) are run by a TA. For example, I myself am a TA and in the course I TA in, the professor lectures twice a week and runs the exams and teaches new material, but then there is a lab/recitation every week where I reinforce those concepts to a small part of the class. The TAs are also responsible for grading typically. This is pretty normal in my experience.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Something to note is that in the residential colleges (Lyman Briggs, James Madison, Residential College of Arts and Humanities…) typically have much smaller class sizes. I spent a semester in Lyman Briggs and our calculus II class only had about 20 people in it, much smaller than the course through the university math department.</p>
<p>Piddles I’m just curious. Why only 1 sememster in Briggs? Not the first I’ve heard of kids leaving after a short time in LB.</p>