Do You Guys End Up Teaching Yourself Everything?

NJDS
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:05:29 +0000

^i disagree partly with zenkoan. while stanford faculty overall seem to be great, i think for introductory classes, it is often hit or miss. it also depends on the department. almost all faculty in the sciences and social sciences are excellent researchers, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to being a good professor. for example, the physics department is known for having awful professors in any of the introductory series (20s, 40s), and that was my experience this quarter. the professor didn’t reach well at all, and we were forced to rely on previous knowledge and the textbook.
my experience in polisci was different. i loved the professor for the class i took, and he actually TAUGHT the class. the class was still very heavily reliant on readings, but in polisci, the subject matter is very reliant on the specific readings because we read the actual research from experts in the field.
in the chem department, some professors are known for being good professors, and others are known for being so bad that people drop classes and take them elsewhere (even in upperlevel chem classes)

and i think the OP meant: as students at a smaller private school, do we have the same experience as him and other Cal students