@jake6621
1-Your DS might be better off going to a LAC where classes are taught only by Profs, because there are no graduate students at LAC’s.
2-If you have not already had him treated with AIT- Auditory Integration Therapy-I HIGHLY encourage you to find a trained Audiologist that uses this method to " retrain" the auditory nerve center of the brain asap!
https://www.aitinstitute.org/ait_research_2015.htm
My DS also was diagnosed with CAPD, and underwent AIT therapy over the course of a summer. Within 1 year there was a marked improvement in his ability to follow conversations, either in person or on the phone.
He no longer has ANY problem understanding what others are saying.
His Audiologist was Judith Paton, who wrote the paper in the Pdf link.
Can’t recommend this method of training ,which was developed in Europe, enough!
1). Just because he has trouble understanding on day one doesn’t mean he can’t/won’t be able to adjust and pick it up after a few classes.
2). It helps to sit in the front.
3). Don’t call the school and suggest that your son has to have White American Professors.
re post #16. The large schools can have so many advantages over the small schools for many reasons. Undergrads get to take grad level courses unavailable at some schools and get to interact with upper echelon grad students and research. The grad level DOES filter down to the undergrad level- at least for top students. For most college students it won’t matter. One of my worst undergrad chem classes was taught by an American, head of the theoretical chem institute of my U. His problem wasn’t pronunciation but making the highly mathematical understandable. Other opportunities far outweighed this one prof. Some people are to be valued for skills other than teaching basics (or advanced material) to undergrads. I also remember the American honors class physics TA who we countered with his analogy of problem solving to entering a building on the first floor- because of hills UW had entrances on as high as the 4th or 6th floor as we pointed out.
OP- is your son more in need of easily followed teachers or being in the midst of current advances in the field? There is no perfect college with everything on any checklist. Most college students are average and choices will reflect more than academic intensity.
Contact the Office of Disability Resources and ask whether thy help with course selection for students with auditory and sensory issues that require teachers speaking very distinctly, with as little of a marked regional accent as possible.
A&M will have a majority of international TAs. Not sure about RPI/WPI.
OP: I think that you have valid concerns. I have heard dozens of horror stories about profs & TAs at Georgia Tech & other tech schools, and none of those complaining students suffered from auditory processing issues.
Additionally, larger colleges offer a greater number of classes and often multiple sections of the same class. Sure, a couple of the organic chemistry professors may be difficult to understand or have bad reviews, but who cares when you have 12 sections to choose from?
At small schools, on the other hand, you’re often stuck with whoever’s teaching the class you need. LACs in particular depend heavily on an ever-changing cast of visiting professors to pad out their offerings, so you may or may not know what to expect.
You care when the lecture with the better professor conflicts with another needed course or is filled with higher priority students. Even if you register for the section with the sucky prof and are able to sneak in unnoticed to the lecture section with the good prof, you care if the multiple sections do not have common exams. You care when you can’t pop into any recitation section if you’re not registered. Or at my college, you’d care because your choice is to take the one lecture section of orgo offered or not
English fluency requirements to be a visiting professor are quite different from what’s required for graduate admissions in tech at many state universities.
I also have heard this about Georgia Tech. Which others schools have you heard this about?
I spent a few years in upstate NY so know some friends that went to RPI, I pinged them on this and by and large said they did not run into too many international TAs or non-English professors. But they went in the late 80s and I’m guessing things may be a lot different now, given that stem PHDs are majority Asian. You’ll have to review the faculty profiles maybe rate my professor to get a better idea.
You can look at the graduate student admission page for each Dept of interest - you want to see a minimum TOEFL requirement of 90-92 and 20+ for speaking. You can look at the graduate assistantship requirements too.
IMO there’s a difference between professors from any country or region who have been teaching a long time and TAs who may or may not have English as a first language, or even a second, fluently, and are in the US only long enough (so far) to get a degree.
@jake6621 - I’ve heard it about Ohio State. Major communication issues with TA lecturers and discussion section leaders.
My best friend in architecture school would ask for a pin and I never knew if he meant a writing pen or a stick pin. My best professor in college, I think I only understood half the words of his first lecture, but eventually I got used to his strong Austrian accent. I find Asian accents harder to follow, I think because they don’t get the tonal flow of sentences and they’ve usually learned British English. Your son is likely to find hard to understand accents at every level. He can certainly talk to the disability office and see if they can help. I think also that talking with the people you find hard to understand one on one may help. It’s really not just a TA thing.