Rankings won't cause schools to radically change in quality, especially WM
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Wrong. Participate in the Graduate Teaching Project The Graduate Teaching Project (GTP) is offered as a zero credit, free course for grad students in Arts & Sciences. It is offered once each year and is particularly helpful for students preparing to teach their own course or looking to improve their teaching effectiveness. |
Anonymous
|
“The Japanese Program regularly uses undergraduate Teaching Assistants for our first-year and second-year language classes.”
https://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/japanese/student-resources/teaching/ TAs normally do not receive pay, but rather academic credit for their intellectual labor (readings, discussion & planning with faculty, delivery of lessons).” https://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/hispanic/resources-for-students/studentteaching/ Whoever is peddling this fiction that TAs do not teach classes at W&M should be ashamed. Of course they do. 
|
Anonymous
DP: W&M hardly has any graduate programs--so this isn't particularly relevant outside the majors where there is a grad program and I can't imagine that it's a major part of any undergrad experience like it often is at other schools. |
Anonymous
|
Wasn't there already a thread about the pretty nonexistent overlap of kids at VT and W&M? Nobody really disputes that. They are way too different.
This thread was supposed to be about the quality of a college not really changing just because someone decided to put the emphasis on something different this time around. If they decide in another 2 yrs (just as an example) to switch to something that W&M does better than VTech it will switch again. Does that mean that either institution has changed substantially in those 2 years. No. Look at what environment your kid prefers, what methodology what used, and the data points important to you. |
Anonymous
Several links have been provided that say otherwise. Stop pretending WM doesn’t use TAs to teach classes. They do. |
Anonymous
My sophomore is actually double majoring in Japanese Studies and has not had one TA yet so far at all. Not in the Japanese culture classes, nor in the language classes. Don't know what to tell you. |
Anonymous
I'm a different poster-- so I don't know what you mean by "Stop pretending." I'm just noting that compared to other national universities W&M only has a small handful of grad programs. So if they use any TAs it's a very minimal amount. How about this: A strong feature of WM undergraduate education is the vast, vast majority of classes are taught by professors. FWIW, my kid graduated there and never had a TA teach a class. |
Anonymous
|
So I checked with my kid:
They have office hours once a week or hold review sessions and help out students during clarifying tests questions. For group quizzes helping with what concept the quiz is asking about. The graduate TAs have more office hours and more responsibility, I think. Me: Are they teaching classes? Kid: No |
Anonymous
I have a WM Global Policy Major, which is a critical language plus policy major. DC lives in a modern language house. There is a fellow, who is a younger, MA level teacher from a country where the language is spoken. The fellow is not getting a degree at WM and the same fellow has been there for at least 3 years. It’s a not exactly permanent, but also not an annual turnover position. Not exactly a professor, because the fellow has no terminal degree. But not a TA, because not pursuing one. The best description would be a post-grad Fulbright type job or an adjunct from a foreign country. The fellow lives in an apartment in the modern language house, gets room and board and a stipend, encourages use of the target language within the house, is available for students who want to hang out and work on language skills or get help in the language. The biggest part of her job is house programming, which is extensive. If you take a class in the language you have to participate in 8 (??) events a semester. She arranges language teas, language Olympics, celebrating native holidays with the students which includes the food they prepare because she teaches extensive cooking lessons in the language (I think cooking is a big hobby for her, because they do a lot of cooking classes in the language). She does teach 1 class a semester— the intermediate level of the language, which has about 20 students. DC lives in the language house and says she was a great teacher. DC’s OPI scores are very high, so something working. I’m impressed with the amount of time she’s dedicating outside of class to real world language use— and having a blast doing it. So that’s an example of a “teaching fellow” at WM. Having seen it on action, I’m a huge fan of this model in the foreign language area. But, you do you. My kid has never has a TA in the traditional sense. |
Anonymous
|
WM does have grad program in history. And the intro world history classes are probably the largest at the college, hitting about 100 kids. Lots of popular majors require the class. My understanding is there is a small section once a week lead by a TA. I’m sure they help grade papers and have some availability outside of class.
Classes are taught by professors. My DS “isn’t sure” if any other class uses traditional TAs for small sections. Says “maybe one of the intro STEM classes”. So there you go PP. You have found TA teaching at WM. Feel vindicated. DS is a junior and that’s the only TA he’s had. |
Anonymous
| TBH no gives a sh#t about W&M outside this region. It could improve by 10 spots or decline by 20 and no one outside the DMV would care. |
Anonymous
That's one hell of a weird conspiracy theory you have there. It almost sounds ... *checks notes* ... RACIST. |
Anonymous
Stay classy. |
Anonymous
I understood it more along the lines, see what UVA does right in that sense. They have a higher ethnic diversity than Tech or W&M, while keeping their stats high. Sure, as the state flagship their visibility is higher and their appeal to a broader group makes it easier. Try to find the diamonds out there in those groups and get them interested. They are there. |
Anonymous
|
** adding**
UVA has also a higher graduation rate of 1st gen & Pell Grant, so they are doing something very right. No, I am not having a student at UVA, though kid got accepted. |