<p>Seriously, every time someone mentions school sizes they always talk with dread about grad. student instructors and TAs. After almost two semesters at college, I'm totally not buying the "grad. students suck" montra. I mean, I know there are good and bad grad. student instructors, but there are also good and bad professors. In fact, my hands-down favorite "professor" this year was a grad. student (not a TA but the only person teaching the course)--the lectures were fun to go to (informative and really entertaining at the same time), they had experience in the field that was relevent to the material, they were accessible if the students needed anything, and I still remember almost everything I learned in that class (took it fall semester).</p>
<p>So why do people assume grad. students will necessarily be bad teachers?</p>
<p>grad students may be good teachers, but they aren't proven good teachers.</p>
<p>Also, I've never ran into my professors often around campus, but I've seen my T.A.'s eating out, sitting around or at parties, which can be awkward if you see them grading exams lol.</p>
<p>"40k a year to be taught by kids 3 years older than you, that could be the problem"
Eh? Three years? Most grad. students (especially PhD candidates) are a lot older than that; most grad. students I've run into have been in their late twenties, so about a decade older than than most lower classmen.</p>
<p>And not everyone pays 40k...</p>
<p>"Also, I've never ran into my professors often around campus, but I've seen my T.A.'s eating out, sitting around or at parties, which can be awkward if you see them grading exams lol."</p>
<p>This has happened to some of my friends with professors (not at parties, of course). I agree it can be a bit awkward. :)</p>
<p>I'm not a fan of grad students either, here's why. In my English class first semester I'd write my essays the night before they were due, and never read the books we had for discussion, yet I still managed to get an A. In Math... well I guess that's another story, but rather than being ultra easy like English, it was ultra hard. The teacher never took the time to meet with us outside of class, and he expected us to be Math gurus such as himself, so when we had trouble in a certain section, he had no sympathy nor understanding of why we couldn't understand. </p>
<p>I also thought it was well stated earlier, about paying $40,000 to be taught by grad students. If I'm gonna pay this much, I want to be taught by a professor, not a second year grad student. </p>
<p>However, with that being said, I've just tried my best to avoid those teachers and looking for courses taught by professors.</p>
<p>Yes, grad students are not proven good teachers, but neither are professors, necessarily. I don't know what the hiring process for professors is like, but I'd guess research is at least as important as teaching. It results in some profs who just can't teach. You're paying your $40K to be taught by good teachers, which does not exclude non-profs.</p>
<p>Don't automatically avoid classes that aren't taught by profs. One of the best teachers I've had thus far was a postdoc.</p>
<p>I find that grad students' sections are very useful and very helpful. Grad students aren't allowed to teach the courses around here but they do TA and they are usually very helpful.</p>
<p>After this semester, I too do not care if I get a grad student. My favorite prof. this whole year was a grad student. She was only teaching an intro course, so it's not like I needed the expertise of a hired professor. In general I feel grad students really understand our situations, and can empathize with the amount of work we get, know how important it is to get to know the students, and aren't too busy to make room in their schedule if we need extra help.</p>
<p>Although, I was at a party and she was there too. We were both drinking. It was VERY awkward.</p>
<p>I've taken 10 courses during my first year and will add 2 more this summer, none of them taught my TAs or grad students. In my econ class my prof was gone for a day and the Head TA taught for the day and it sucked.....nothing was explained, he described theories as completely different from what the book and/or our prof told us, and he rushed through it. If it was his only TA experience I'd feel bad for him, but this guy subs for profs in all levels of Econ courses and teaches atleast four days a week, and it's his second year as a TA. I'm glad I've never had a TA as an instructor, and hopefully I never do. Oh...and I'm at a school of 24000 undergrads, so don't say just the small schools are TA-free.</p>
<p>They have not updated their ratings since forever. RMP went under new management. They were bought out by MTVU, but the folks at MTVU have no idea as to when the site will have current ratings, because of the legalities behind that. Trust me on this. </p>
<p>Go look over on the myspace professor rating section. They have one for every school.</p>
<p>what do you mean haven't updated? I see new posts from professors quite often, at least from my area.. although ill check out the myspace ratings i didn't know about that, thanks</p>
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what do you mean haven't updated? I see new posts from professors quite often, at least from my area.. although ill check out the myspace ratings i didn't know about that, thanks
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</p>
<p>They are ratings which only appear for a short while, and then, they are put under review. Check back after a while and you will see ratings which say: "Rating Under Review." </p>
<p>I am just posting this to be nice. I do not want anyone to be mislead by that site. The legal department of MTVU is just keeping everything up in the air.</p>
<p>Um ya, professors are NOT teachers. They have no teaching certificate and most have no desire to teach. They aren't at the university to be "teachers," they are there because that is where the money is for their field of research. END OF STORY.</p>
<p>So far, I've had quite a few ****TY professors. You see the problem with professors is, they are OVER-qualified to teach. They know their material too well, and have been researching for too long. THey can no longer connect to people outside of their intelligence level. It's just hard.</p>
<p>Granted, I have also had excellent professors teach. They have that ability to connect. </p>
<p>As for grad students. I have not had ONE bad T.A. I have only had one that had a minor difficulty with English, but even then he was able to pass the language barrior and communicate with me. T.A's are down to Earth and are around the same age as you, so they can communicate extremely well.</p>
<p>I find no problem with T.A's, so long as they can speak English. I have met one T.A (not mine thank God) and he couldn't speak English...at all. He was some Chinese guy and well, I don't know how he passed his language exam lol.</p>