I looked at the profiles of Professors in W&M Faculty, many of them don’t have good background. Most of them graduated from no-name colleges/Universities.
W&M is expensive college, why can W&M attract better Professors faculty?
UC Berkeley is a public university, but has many Nobel laureate Professors.
You are not properly informed. For many, many years, W&M has been KNOWN for having among the best UG Professors for teaching (imagine that). Yes they do some research but their focus is at least equally placed on the classroom, Professor / Scholar relationship. This is why W&M traditionally is ranked as having among the happiest students. Rigorous academics but engaged profs who are most great at working with kids who want to be involved.
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What counts as “top” programs in particular fields varies. Univ Cincinnati is a top program in classical archaeology, Univ Pitt, Rutgers and UC Riverside have been top Philosophy departments for various specialties. Wisconsin could be much more stronger Ph.D. program than Yale, depending on the field. Plus, undergrad matters very little in assessing the strength of a faculty – what matters is where they trained for their Ph.D. and the best programs in particular fields are not necessarily at the top 20 universities.
The market for tenure-track jobs is so unbelievably competitive in the U.S., most top 50-75 colleges and universities have very strong faculty because they are hiring from a crowded pool.
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The only subjects where a college may have trouble hiring top-end talent for faculty would be those where there is substantial non-academic demand for people with PhDs in the subject (e.g. computer science).
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Not sure if this is a joke from the OP. I was taken aback by the comment and reviewed the faculty of the Computer Science and Linguistics Department–one STEM and one humanities. Alumni of Rice, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Oxford, Dartmouth, Ohio State, Brown, U Illinois, UC San Diego, UVA etc. and several prominent international universities are teaching in those departments at W&M. As far as Nobel Laureates, Berkeley isn’t quite an equal comparison to W&M. The former is a very large international university with tremendous public resources and the latter a liberal arts college focused on undergraduate instruction. The original comment is essentially nonsense.
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You can check their Professors profiles/CV. Their quality is comparable to Community College Professors.
W&M is expensive, they should hired better quality Professors.
The students pay top dollar tuition, should get better Professors and education.
What program are you referring to?
I think you are correct that there are no Nobel laureates at W&M. Not sure what that has to do with teaching undergraduates.
W&M is an entirely different kind of college experience than Berkeley. If you want Berkeley, go to Berkeley. If you want a liberal arts education in a tight community about a fifth of the size, where the professors are hired to teach not necessarily research, W&M is great.
Apples and oranges.
The CVs of W&M profs are just fine.
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You are confusing undergraduate vs. grad/PhD quality and prestige.
The University of Michigan is ranked outside the top-20 in most undergraduate rankings, but they are probably top-10 overall for grad school and PhD offerings. They are a grad powerhouse.
The U of Wisconsin is similar – ranked in the 40s in USNews but usually top-20 or top-30 in world university rankings, which are largely based on grad/PhD reputation. Ditto the U of Washington, Illinois, Texas, UCSD, etc.
(Cal and UCLA are sometimes ranked in the undergrad top-20, so they wouldn’t fit this quite to the same extent; UVA and UNC, also great at the undergrad level, have fewer notable grad and PhD programs)
Meanwhile, some undergrad powerhouses like Dartmouth and Brown and Notre Dame – while they do have quality graduate programs, they offer fewer top-quality programs than those aforementioned state schools, so they suffer in world rankings.
For grad school, follow the research money.
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Well that’s insulting. I have a BS from Yale and a PhD from a top research university, but I teach at community college. Where you teach has nothing to do with what you know. In factI prefer CC because I focus on teaching and not research. If a student is interested in research, that may not be the best school for them. But their classroom experience may be stellar for exactly that reason.
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I don’t think OP has cited any facts. W&M is one of the most highly ranked schools for undergrad teaching. Here is the 2020 link citing it as #4 (along with Princeton),
I’m sure this is based in part on student satisfaction as well as other factors. I would say that where someone attended school is but one piece of the puzzle. My best professor, ever, taught at an Ivy but had attended school in Egypt. Does that mean anything? Nope.
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Good teachers come from all over the place. Getting a degree from prestigious university means you are likely pretty intelligent but it does not make you a good teacher. But if you feel that the professors at W&M are beneath you, then you probably shouldn’t go there! Let some other student who wants to be taught by their highly-regarded faculty have your spot.
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Well, you must not like the TA system at Berkeley, either. You will be taught by grad students a good chunk of the time.
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I don’t see the OP’s opinion changing. To that end, I’m closing.
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