Do You Guys End Up Teaching Yourself Everything?

zenkoan
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:14:00 +0000

^ I have found the quality of instruction at Stanford to be entirely excellent. I was fortunate enough to only have one large lecture class during Fall quarter, but even in that class the professors were amazing because they were obviously excited about the material themselves. And the post-doc who led the discussion section was very on top of things as well. I’d had the opportunity to meet several faculty members at Stanford, and at other top universities, before making my college decision, and the quality of Stanford faculty was probably the most significant factor in my decision.

I do think that some degree of self-teaching is inherent in college study, but what you’re describing is something very different, and sounds more like abdication of teaching responsibility. Berkeley is a great school, but it might be that with budget pressures and huge classes, that is the best that some of the professors can manage now… :(

BTW, Stanford is a private school, and much smaller than Cal; not sure what you meant at the end of your first paragraph.