<p>Agree about atrocious English. S had originally registered for Calc.1 as a refresher class since it had been awhile since he had it in h.s. but got a grad student with an accent so thick it was nearly impossible to understand. So he dropped the class and took Calc. 2 instead, stll got a grad student but an Eng. speaking one who was very helpful.</p>
<p>DRab, I believe that you misunderstood my point. Just because one pays $40K to attend an does not mean that there will be no possibility of being in a course taught by a TA. These days, TAs are part and parcel of the operation of colleges.</p>
<p>it REALLY does depend on the TA. I had one course years ago taught by a TA, who was really a post-doc. Halfway thru the semster, he said that he had taken a position at P'ton starting in the fall. Thus, in May, he was my TA....four months later, he was a Professor for kids in NJ.....</p>
<p>I TA at my school, but that involves helping out in lab, grading problem sets (according to a rubric, and the prof checks them over to make sure she agrees with the way partial credit was given before she puts the grades in her grade book), running review sessions and help sessions for tests and problem sets, and being someone the students can email or find at midnight if they need a question answered. </p>
<p>The TAs I had my freshman year helped me get through a very difficult year without going crazy, and helping other freshman is the best way I can think of to give back for the awesome TAs I had.</p>
<p>
[quote]
DRab, I believe that you misunderstood my point. Just because one pays $40K to attend an does not mean that there will be no possibility of being in a course taught by a TA. These days, TAs are part and parcel of the operation of colleges.
[/quote]
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<p>This I disagree with. They are part and parcel of only a subgroup of colleges, namely the research universities. </p>
<p>Look at the elite LAC's. They use very few TA's (in fact, many use none at all), for the simple reason that they have very few graduate students in the first place (and in fact, many LAC's have none). In fact, this has always been one of the LAC's main selling points - that you are going to get intimate contact with professors. Not TA's, but actual professors. </p>
<p>So the point is, anybody who wants to maximize his exposure to profs and not TA's, the answer is simple - go to Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, or one of the other elite LAC's.</p>
<p>However if you want some exposure to nationally known profs with major research grants you better go to a top research school--not the LACs.</p>
<p>Yes there is some trade-off.</p>
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<p>their signatures on the bottom of a letter of recommendation don't carry as much clout as a professor's signature.</p>
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<p>Profs will generally sign letters drafted by their TA's.</p>
<p>IMHO, TA's should not be the ultimate authority in a course -- there ought to be a very experienced person students can turn to if there's a problem. On the other hand, I don't see the evil when TA's supplement the professor who actually teaches the course by leading discussion sessions or running labs.</p>