<p>Actually, unless there is some reason to cut the list (exhaustion? lol) that seems like a solid list. Because these are all extremely competitive admissions, you might want to apply to them all. Tulane would probably be you “pretty much for sure” school (I don’t like the word safety), but you might want to add one school that is a total slam dunk that you still might like and can afford. The Barksdale Honors College at Old Miss comes to mind.</p>
<p>I don’t think you ever really gave us your stats. Want to do that for a reality check on your ambitions? Up to you of course.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I think my stats are competitive enough (4.8 GPA, a couple hundred hours of volunteering, solid amount of leadership positions etc), and if I manage to keep these up with my next two years at Exeter I think it’ll mean even more. Plus I’m hoping that being female, URM, and wanting to go into a science field will be a pretty good hook.</p>
<p>If you look through my started threads you’ll find a chance me thread for prep school admissions, and while that’s changed a bit (I recently did a medical program at Duke, went to state for Science Olympiad, etc) you could check that out.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that don’t have TA’s teaching at all, or only overseeing the lab sections of a course. Tulane is one of them.</p>
<p>I sympathize with your disappointment over the WADA situation, Metallika, lol. On a more serious note, I didn’t realize you were only just going to be a junior (is that right?). I commend your thinking ahead so much. When you get your SAT scores, etc. let us know. If they are in line with your grades (I am assuming that 4.8 is weighted on a 4 point scale with an extra point for an honors course, but again please elaborate if it is not), you will have at least a chnace at almost any school in the country.</p>
<p>no TAs teaching is possible but even prestigious “no TA” schools have TAs that provide the tutoring and lab help and really people do find TAs as more helpful than the professor at giving a lecture. Don’t knock the TA is all.</p>
<p>noimagination - who are you asking? If you are asking me, then the answer is yes, a couple of times. Once it was the intro English course (at Tulane, they didn’t have the "no TA’s policy back in the dark ages) and the other was the first semester foreign language course at another school. Both experiences were OK in my case, nothing special. But then, they were not in my major and I suppose I considered both courses necessary evils, especially the foreign language course (never had a talent for learning them), and the English course just because it was so basic, but required. I actually loved literature courses.</p>
<p>lucky - I totally agree with that. That, to me, is the proper role of a TA. I was a chem TA in grad school and that is exactly what I did (well, just to be clear I didn’t give the main lectures of course, just did the 2x per week recitation sections as they were called), and I took great pride in going the extra mile for my students, holding extra sessions before a big test and the like. My research prof grumbled, but I didn’t care. I loved teaching and seeing my sections of the class do well.</p>
<p>Oh well, I answered anyway, lol. I think the issue is that if you are paying a ton of money to go to a university, you expect to get taught by professors. I think that is entirely fair, if not always practical at many schools. Few TA’s, no matter how talented a lecturer they may be, can bring the depth of experience and breadth of knowledge a professor can, on average. Now for the 100 level classes, admittedly this might not matter so much, granted. Still, it cannot be outrageous to have the expectation that at a univeristy, you will actually be taught by tenure tract faculty or their equivalent.</p>
<p>Yes, fallen, I’m only going to be a junior. I’m a youngin’ (: I’ll make sure to let you all know once I take the SAT…I’ll probably take it and the ACT a couple of times in the next year. (If this means anything, I took the PSAT last October and had around a 200, and at that point I had yet to take Geometry. My goal is 2100+, which I believe I could do at this point). And, yes, my 4.8 is weighted on a 4.0 scale. I had 4 core honors classes with 1 non honors (requirements like Gym, Technology, and Latin I and II) each semester the past two years.</p>
<p>You’re exactly right in why I would rather have profs, fallen. I know TAs will always be around and may be helpful, but if I’m going to get a good education (and pay) I would prefer to get it from the ‘masterminds’ that universities tout are on staff. I wouldn’t want to go somewhere where professors only hold a professorship in order to do research, and where they don’t care about students at all. I wouldn’t mind having a class taught by both TA and professor, but what scares me is going someplace where I’ll only be around TAs and have no access to my profs.</p>
<p>On WUSTL, just a word of caution. Although in the late spring, summer, and early fall, it is very warm here, in the winter and surrounding months it can become bitterly cold. Not below zero degrees cold (usually), but it can get very cold.</p>
<p>I don’t want to turn you away from WUSTL just because of that fact, but you said it fit your list and I just wanted to clarify that it doesn’t perfectly fit your wish for a college in a warm location.</p>
<p>A couple of points: Even at the most research oriented universities, I don’t think the TA’s teach anything other than the intro classes. There may be a very few exceptions, but if people know I am wrong on this by all means speak up. If I am right, and I can say that I am in the vast majority of cases for sure, you would only end up with at most a handful of classes taught by TA’s. Now that may still be too many for you, and that is a fair position to take. But it will never be like you would get all the way through your sophomore year and have yet to see a prof, I don’t think. At some places like Harvard that actually used to be close to possible, but I think even they have made it so less courses are taught by TA’s, on paper anyway. I say on paper bacause many times the famous profs are off advising Obama or Intel or someone or something else, and so the TA’s would take over. Anyway, I digress.</p>
<p>Point #2 is at this stage, then, it makes little sense to keep naming schools. You have plenty to research now, and without actual test scores it is all speculation. Fun, but you have plenty to chew on now. I look forward to seeing your results and a full “resume”, and then there will be plenty of advice and opinions from the CC crowd. Good luck at Exeter! Where, btw, there will be excellent college counseling, I would think.</p>
<p>St. Louis is not deathly cold during the Winter. I should know, I’ve been there too many times. There might be the occasional heavy snowfall, but it’s not unbearable.</p>
<p>I grew up in St. Louis. There were times it got bitterly cold, but it was rare even back then. Tons more snow back then too, just like most of the country. It (both the heavy snow and the bitter cold) can happen still, but it would be pretty anomolous these days, especially the sub-zero cold. Certainly not balmy though!</p>
<p>WUSTL is a great school. My grandmother lived about 10 minutes away, I was a bit further, maybe 20-25. Anyway, WUSTL was tied for my D’s first choice, but she got a huge amount more merit money at Tulane.</p>