<p>We are very disappointed with the level and quality of my freshman son’s instructors. He’s not great in math or foreighn language, so for calculus and intro Spanish, he went to quite a bit of trouble to enroll in classes with highly rated professors. When he got his final schedule, those professors had disappeared and both classes were being tuaught by graduate students. He was able to transfer to a different Spanish class (taught by an adjunct) but he’s stuck with math. For his other two classes, one is is being taught by an adjunct and the other by a post-doc (he loves her). The only actual “professor” he has is teaching his Tides class. </p>
<p>I can accept that his freshman dorm looks like a homeless shelter, but for all the money we’re paying and based on what we heard during the recruitment process, I expected the instruction to be better. He could have gotten the same roster of TAs and adjuncts by going to a state school!</p>
<p>Tulane specifically states that no classes are taught by grad students. It seems more likely that the prof was simply away or ill. Or maybe he is confusing a tutorial session with the actual class? Not likely I guess. Adjunct profs are not unusual of course, all schools are using them, especially in these tight budget times. While I agree that having tenure track profs is preferable, there is no difference in qualifications between an adjunct prof and a first or second year tenure track prof.</p>
<p>However, if you are sure of your facts regarding the grad student and post doc and want to register your displeasure (even though he loves the post doc), I would absolutely write to Nick Altiero, Dean of the School of Science and Engineering, and copy Dean MacLaren. If the post doc teaches in another School, you can do the same for that Dean, although I suppose there isn’t really much difference between a post doc and an adjunct/tenure track prof other than experience (in most cases). Certainly they have already been through the academic wringer. Guess I am saying it wouldn’t be much different if he had happened to have gotten a bunch of new faculty members, to some degree. Maybe I am rationalizing a bit, but largely true.</p>
<p>As you probably know, I read everything on these threads and I have never heard a similar complaint. In fact there are few complaints about the teaching in general. Having said that, if the situation is as you descibe I would be steamed as well and would certainly make my voice heard. You are paying a lot, you have that right.</p>
<p>Unfortunately that is part of life at universities that focus on research and/or have large numbers of graduate students. You can’t expect Tulane to be like a liberal arts college. When you have Phd students they are there for free or limited cost. As a result, they are required to teach undergrads. </p>
<pre><code> I don’t mean any disrespect but this is something you should have considered before your son enrolled. Colleges generally make these statistics available. Research universities are not a place for people who need hand holding. This is the price you have to pay to have Tulane in the US News “national university” category. If you are looking for tiny classes taught by full-time faculty and easy access to professors, your son should have looked at colleges that focus on undergraduate studies such as the liberal arts colleges or colleges that offer less graduate programs like colleges on the “masters university” lists.
While there are downsides to research universities, there is an added prestige factor to some. For example, a place like UC-Berkeley is a mill but has a great national reputation as a result of its graduate studies, research and faculty publishing. On the flip side, you can’t expect a lot of personal attention. There is no perfect school - everything is a trade-off.
</code></pre>
<p>Tulane says on their web site, or at least did as recently as Spring 2010, that grad students supervise labs and that kind of thing, but that all classes were taught by full PhD’s or in some disciplines the highest degree commensurate with that area of study. My wording might be a bit off, but that is the gist of it. So RisingChemist is right that grad students do earn their keep by teaching in labs, study sessions, and similar roles, but at Tulane at least the deal was they don’t teach the lecture class, not even at the most basic intro level. The exception would be when someone like James Carville teaches his Poli Sci class, which I doubt anyone would raise objections to based on his lack of a PhD (except honorary). That in essence means tenure track faculty, adjunct profs, and visiting profs. If this has changed it would be a step backwards, and seems a bit unlikely due to Tulane’s statements in the past. I am anxious to hear the factual story.</p>
<p>After seeing this thread, I asked DD who is a new freshman about her classes. She said she has professors for all classes except her Calculus lab. That is taught by a TA. She hasnt had her Chem lab yet but I expect that may be a TA also.</p>
<p>Wait, you mean it hasn’t even been a week and she has called?? LOL, kidding.</p>
<p>Yes, labs are taught by TA’s in virtually all research schools. Besides the obvious need to distribute the work load, it is how they get experience teaching (and learn a ton!!). As a grad student, I taught chemistry as a TA to “regular” students, a class of nurses, and the football team. What that means is the professor taught the lectures, and I taught the problem solving sessions and the labs, and graded the tests. I held office hours in addition to the professor’s hours, and would hold extra sessions before major exams. Tulane is no different than Harvard, Stanford, Duke, WUSTL, or most other private schools in this regard, or any state school.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, I called her. Couldnt wait any longer. Emails were really unsatisfying. I think it is a Mom thing as Dad was fine. LOL. She is having a blast so far. Target party lasst night was a hit. She cant wait for riverboat cruise today.</p>
<p>Excellent to hear she is having a good first week. That is the hardest usually, until midterms and/or finals. I was going to ask, but I didn’t want to hijack the thread. Maybe after this coming week we can start a thread on the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding their initial experience at Tulane. One thing that has become increasingly clear to me is that the admistration does listen to feedback. For example, I think at least part of the reason for these changes at Bruff were consistent complaints that the food did not meet expectations. Granted, expectations in New Orleans might be a bit higher, but then they should be. I will be interested to hear if people think it is better now. The administration doesn’t always act as we might like, but often they do and they defintely take it seriously. But might as well wait another week so they have more of a chance to really know what is going on, I think.</p>
<p>Sidebar-
Its been fascinating to watch every major TV station broadcast from NOLA today, with the 5 yr Katrina anniversary occurring this weekend. So far I haven’t seen any broadcast from Tulane, nor really any mention of it, which is disappointing. I texted my DS-- but its 8 in the morning-- and I assume he is err… ahem… cough cough… getting ready for class!!! Well, he did just buy a new bed for his house. It arrived Tues. zzzzzzzz…</p>
<p>OK, as long as you brought up the subject…
Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Senator Landrieu will be on Meet the Press this Sunday. I wrote to Mayor Landrieu encouraging him to mention the central role Tulane has played in the recovery, along with Loyola, UNO, Xavier and Dillard of course. But I pointed out that as the largest employer in New Orleans and a top university, Tulane clearly had taken the lead in many areas. He wrote back the same day (for which I give him and his staff much credit) with the following:</p>
<p>
I am not as convinced, obviously, that the state, much less the country know as much as they should in this regard, but oh well. I tried. The mistake in the letter leads me to believe he may have hand written a quick reply and that the typist misread his note. That is actually kind of impressive to me.</p>
<p>It’s been great to see all of the reporting about NOLA lately, a lot of it very positive. And though I haven’t heard Tulane mentioned in regards to Katrina, experts from the school have been everywhere speaking about the oil spill.</p>
<p>But to return to the subject of this thread… I checked the department websites and my son’s instructors for Long Calculus, Intro Spanish, and English Writing are all listed as graduate students in those departments. Which I guess makes them graduate students…</p>
<p>As Fallenchemist suggested, I’ve written some emails to the deans to ask if this is common practice. I’ll let you know what/if I hear back.</p>
<p>S2 has professors for all his courses and really likes all of them. He really liked that his philosophy prof spent little time on introductory business and jumped right into the course material. His Spanish course (not intro) is taught by a prof. Largest class is between 30 - 35, most about 20. He had a great first week and is looking forward to the riverboat cruise.</p>
<p>I looked at the History Detective shows being shown on the local PBS station. What is the description you have of the show on Monday? Here, it isn’t even shown on Monday.</p>
<p>OK, great. I hadn’t had a chance to read the New Wave today. I think that show must air later here, because it isn’t either of the episodes being described in the program guide.</p>
<p>PS - Just did some checking on the PBS site. It is part of the same episode that talks about the history of animation, which all the description our local guide gave. I think here it airs Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanks for the alert.</p>
<p>I tend to agree that the use of “mill” is not necessary, nor is “coming from…” S2 chose Tulane over Berkeley precisely because of what he heard about class size, TA teaching, time-to-graduation, and registration issues from friends who attend. I’m sure Berkeley may be a good fit for some, for others it is not.</p>
<p>That is pretty funny dwnkboy. You say people should not disparage other schools (which I agree with) and then launch right in. Classy. BTW, maybe you know Tulane as a school that has “inflated” gpa’s, but actually the opposite is true. Getting A’s in most classes at Tulane is no cakewalk. Maybe you have it confused with schools like Brown where some huge percentage earn A’s. That is not disparaging, that is a fact from their own reports.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at Tulane this year and I just thought I’d chip in:</p>
<p>French: professor (pretty good)
Calculus: profesor (awesome)
Calculus lab: T.A. (not too great)
Chemistry: professor (awesome)
chem lab: T.A. (have yet to take it)
E-bio: professor (awesome)
E-Bio: grad-student? (not bad)
Tides: Intro to clinical medicine (awesome)</p>
<p>Also, it totally rocks and I’m having a great time!</p>
<p>Shoo. Perhaps you might enjoy posting elsewhere. If you have hardly heard of the school, perhaps your interests would be better served elsewhere than merely to come here and antagonize posters discussing professors and TAs.</p>
<p>Back to topic, DS says he likes all of his profs this semester.</p>