"Only taught by professors"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think LAC claims of "only being taught by professors" is nonsense. Who cares? I'd rather be taught by active, impressive researchers pushing the bounds of their field even if they are grad students. Why would I want some professor who couldn't get a tenure job at an R1 to teach me?

Grad students are learning how to be scientists . They are not scientists yet, and besides circumscribed techniques…cannot train other scientists.

You can get a teaching assistant position at my DC's undergrad your second semester of freshman year. Many students then move on and continue holding their own office hours and lectures independent of the professor after that. This is a recognized job at the college, and you need these experiences to get into a grad program. Many students teach before entering a PhD program, and, honestly, if you can get into Berkeley PhD in Physics, you can teach an undergrad intro to e&m.

You don’t NEED undergrad teaching experience to get into science grad school, though you can spin it as a plus.

What parent wants to pay high tuition for their kid to take college level material from someone who was in high school two years ago? It seems like you have not been exposed to world class subject matter experts: who can inspire young minds to enter a field. Who can bring concepts alive with examples from their years of carrying out research. When you teach a class over time, you finetune it through seeing what works with different cohorts.

You don’t seem to recognize or value quality education, which says something about your life experience.

[Anonymous]

For those sending their kid to college to obtain an education…here is a ranking of schools that excel in that arena:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think LAC claims of "only being taught by professors" is nonsense. Who cares? I'd rather be taught by active, impressive researchers pushing the bounds of their field even if they are grad students. Why would I want some professor who couldn't get a tenure job at an R1 to teach me?

Grad students are learning how to be scientists . They are not scientists yet, and besides circumscribed techniques…cannot train other scientists.

You can get a teaching assistant position at my DC's undergrad your second semester of freshman year. Many students then move on and continue holding their own office hours and lectures independent of the professor after that. This is a recognized job at the college, and you need these experiences to get into a grad program. Many students teach before entering a PhD program, and, honestly, if you can get into Berkeley PhD in Physics, you can teach an undergrad intro to e&m.

You don’t NEED undergrad teaching experience to get into science grad school, though you can spin it as a plus.

What parent wants to pay high tuition for their kid to take college level material from someone who was in high school two years ago? It seems like you have not been exposed to world class subject matter experts: who can inspire young minds to enter a field. Who can bring concepts alive with examples from their years of carrying out research. When you teach a class over time, you finetune it through seeing what works with different cohorts.

You don’t seem to recognize or value quality education, which says something about your life experience.

You're not gonna find world class subject experts in sciences, especially not physics unless you're one of the #s in a Leonard Susskind or Mary Gaillard class. That's not a great learning environment, more a semester of ted talks. I'm assuming you've met brilliant people in college, many of whom can teach an introductory course their first semester. You can find a lot of brilliant students at Williams and have close interactions with faculty, but those faculty will not be leading their field. OP is discussing top liberal arts colleges, and I am sure those students can understand Maxwell's Equations and Torque just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those sending their kid to college to obtain an education…here is a ranking of schools that excel in that arena:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/undergraduate-teaching

Interesting. My cousin teaches at GSU. Thanks for sharing. Although I take USNWR with huge grains of salt.

[Anonymous]

George Mason is tied with Harvard! 🤔

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think LAC claims of "only being taught by professors" is nonsense. Who cares? I'd rather be taught by active, impressive researchers pushing the bounds of their field even if they are grad students. Why would I want some professor who couldn't get a tenure job at an R1 to teach me?

Grad students are learning how to be scientists . They are not scientists yet, and besides circumscribed techniques…cannot train other scientists.

You can get a teaching assistant position at my DC's undergrad your second semester of freshman year. Many students then move on and continue holding their own office hours and lectures independent of the professor after that. This is a recognized job at the college, and you need these experiences to get into a grad program. Many students teach before entering a PhD program, and, honestly, if you can get into Berkeley PhD in Physics, you can teach an undergrad intro to e&m.

You don’t NEED undergrad teaching experience to get into science grad school, though you can spin it as a plus.

What parent wants to pay high tuition for their kid to take college level material from someone who was in high school two years ago? It seems like you have not been exposed to world class subject matter experts: who can inspire young minds to enter a field. Who can bring concepts alive with examples from their years of carrying out research. When you teach a class over time, you finetune it through seeing what works with different cohorts.

You don’t seem to recognize or value quality education, which says something about your life experience.

I'm a tenured prof. My most inspiring instructor ever was the HS teacher who got me into this field in the first place. He was neither a subject matter expert nor a researcher. Open your mind a little and realize that great research and great teaching can be totally unrelated. And the former doesn't even predict the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do think LAC claims of "only being taught by professors" is nonsense. Who cares? I'd rather be taught by active, impressive researchers pushing the bounds of their field even if they are grad students. Why would I want some professor who couldn't get a tenure job at an R1 to teach me?

Grad students are learning how to be scientists . They are not scientists yet, and besides circumscribed techniques…cannot train other scientists.

You can get a teaching assistant position at my DC's undergrad your second semester of freshman year. Many students then move on and continue holding their own office hours and lectures independent of the professor after that. This is a recognized job at the college, and you need these experiences to get into a grad program. Many students teach before entering a PhD program, and, honestly, if you can get into Berkeley PhD in Physics, you can teach an undergrad intro to e&m.

You don’t NEED undergrad teaching experience to get into science grad school, though you can spin it as a plus.

What parent wants to pay high tuition for their kid to take college level material from someone who was in high school two years ago? It seems like you have not been exposed to world class subject matter experts: who can inspire young minds to enter a field. Who can bring concepts alive with examples from their years of carrying out research. When you teach a class over time, you finetune it through seeing what works with different cohorts.

You don’t seem to recognize or value quality education, which says something about your life experience.

I'm a tenured prof. My most inspiring instructor ever was the HS teacher who got me into this field in the first place. He was neither a subject matter expert nor a researcher. Open your mind a little and realize that great research and great teaching can be totally unrelated. And the former doesn't even predict the latter.

But did that high school teachers have years of teaching experience (or was he a student teacher)? That is the appropriate analogy.

I am a tenured professor too, who mentors junior faculty members.

The first time they teach a course, is usually when they get their worst course evaluations . I expect to see improvement over time.