is Mount St. Marys in Maryland an elite school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, classes at places like Swarthmore or Wesleyan are arguably more rigorous than classes at Harvard.

I went to a similar SLAC to these two and never had a class not taught by a professor. I have three very good friends who went to Harvard and almost all their classes the first two years were taught by TAs.

But so what? There are plenty of TAs who are better teachers than many professors. TAs haven't finished their doctorates, but the doctorate only shows how well you can research, not how well you can teach.

I went to a SLAC and had excellent professors, but their teaching ability didn't come from their degrees. It was because they had the interest in and ability to be good at it.

The professors at a SLAC are hired largely because of their teaching skills. They also often have many years of teaching experience before they become professors. The TAs at a large research university are hired almost completely because of their research skills and academic credentials, and are at the beginning of their careers. It stands to reason that, while there may be some TAs who are outstanding, you'll have overall higher quality among the professors at a SLAC than among the TAs at a research university.

I attended a school that is somewhere in between, a research university but smaller and private, like Tufts, or Georgetown, or Chicago. The TAs who taught us were definitely not of the same caliber as the professors. Again, with a few exceptions.

+1. Most of the TAs I went to school with, as a grad student at an ivy, didn't really want to be teaching. They had to teach as part of their FA package, and they saw it as a distraction from their own graduate studies.

[Anonymous]

I have friends from high school who went there. Back then, it was a decent school but not at all elite. It was a pretty big drinking school due to its location (far away from any real civilization).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is the 2nd oldest catholic school in the country.

You may be thinking about St. Mary's College, which is a great school but different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The professors at a SLAC are hired largely because of their teaching skills.

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is the 2nd oldest catholic school in the country.

You may be thinking about St. Mary's College, which is a great school but different.

No. Mount St Mary's is, in fact, the second oldest Catholic school in the country. Not sure why that matters, though. But like every good DCUM thread, a question about any college evolves into a question about admissions at Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Liberal arts schools that are not ivy are NOT elite. The classes are not rigorous. Look up what creations or inventions of impact made by UVA or W&M alumni or Nobel prizes and you will get the picture.

Actually, classes at places like Swarthmore or Wesleyan are arguably more rigorous than classes at Harvard. There is a surfeit of PhDs who are great teachers in this country, and not all of them can end up at ivies.

I'm not sure what alumn creations and inventions has to do with it, though.

I agree. I went to a relatively no-name school in the NYC areas and many of the professors were Ivy and getting started on the teaching ladder.