<p>*Well, at Flagship State U, you’ll be a junior or senior before you actually meet a full professor. Otherwise, enjoy your graduate student instructor. *</p>
<p>No! That may be true at some, but not at my kids’ flagship. Their school does NOT have TAs teaching. At their school, TAs only help during labs, they proctor tests, they facilitate study sessions, etc. TAs don’t do lectures.</p>
<p>Lets compare two schools (it may be unfair to compare, but to prove a point)
No offense to either schools. Both are great
University of Southern California and Minnesota State Mankato.
USC is ranked near the best in everything where as MSM may have only a few programs that are in the upper 25% of the rankings. I’m not saying that USC’s professors are just that good, but it also has to deal with the quality of students. If MSM has a specific class in which a great majority of the students were to go on and accomplish nationally recognized things, people would recognize that professor as being a great. Also, the same goes for USC. If a class is filled with lazy students, it reflects on the professor which brings down his reputation.</p>
<p>I don’t think this topic can be effectively generalized. You can listen to fencersmother and view large research universities as impersonal factories or expect starbright’s rosy perspective to play out in all circumstances. Which case is closest to reality depends on the individual university and department.</p>
<p>@pacman54: I really don’t see where you’re trying to get with that comparison…</p>
<p>And Dartmouth is taking on the challenge of hiring professors that are good at both. It’s a hard task.</p>