UMTYMP student

The relevant statistic is not what percentage of recitations institute-wide are taught by faculty but what percentage of GIR and other introductory class recitations are taught by faculty. My impression is that the vast majority of GIR and introductory class recitations are taught by graduate students.

rspence

@sbjdorlo, my 8.012 lecture has around 100-120 students.

My 5.111 and 18.022 recitations are taught by TA's; my 8.012 recitation is taught by a professor. 5.111 has so many students that it's almost impossible to get professors to teach recitations.

Mikalye

My course 8 and 18 recitations were almost always taught by faculty. Course 5 often uses TA's. It is true that for most students, the class in which they are most likely to have a TA is a freshman recitation, it is also true that the class in which they are most likely to be taught by a Nobel laureate is a freshman recitation. A couple of MIT's most storied faculty, who could teach ANYTHING they want, or indeed nothing at all, choose to teach freshman. Part of this is the ability to "make the sale" to students choosing a major at the end of their first year along the lines of "I chose to devote my life to Physics, and let me try to convey to you why that is." Storied professors who don't have Nobel prizes also often teach freshman. For example, Professor Eric Lander (the first author on the publication of the human genome) normally teaches freshman biology.

molliebatmit

Totally agree. He could even choose not to teach -- Eric Lander has zero need to play departmental politics.

I was in a small graduate-level seminar with one of the biology department's Nobel laureates my sophomore year.

molliebatmit

Totally agree. He could even choose not to teach -- Eric Lander has zero need to play departmental politics.

I was in a small graduate-level seminar with one of the biology department's Nobel laureates my sophomore year.

rspence

@Mikalye are you referring to 7.012? I might be taking that next semester

UMTYMP student

[emphasis mine]

I think you mean a freshmen lecture of several hundred people in the latter case.

Mikalye

UMTYMP is completely correct. Although Math and Physics RECITATIONS are often taught by storied faculty (my roommate had a Nobel laureate for physics), Eric Lander is indeed the LECTURER for 7.012. Nonetheless, my larger point remains. Lander can teach whatever the heck he wants. And he CHOOSES to teach frosh. That regularly happens at MIT, and it does not happen at many of the schools which we compete with.