<p>This is a mountain out of a molehill. Quick research shows these programs exist almost exclusively at HADES: Hotchkiss, Deerfield, St. Paul’s: roughly 4 teaching fellows a year. Basically, if the BS has less than 800 students, it’s a nonissue. If you choose the big guns, it’s the way they do business. Be an informed customer–just like with college. The larger research unis all depend on fellows to get their teaching done; if you want your kids taught exclusively by Ph.D. faculty, look to the LACs. If you want close interaction with advanced faculty for your DC in BS, look to the smaller schools (I’d say less than 500, but that’s arbitrary and IMHO). I can tell you that when you get above 800 students, and faculty numbers that are getting close to 100, there’s no way every student knows every faculty member, or vice versa. Tradeoffs.</p>
<p>(Also, it’s worth noting…all BS faculties are fluid and some degree of movement is the norm. So there are always teachers new to the school, and even if they have more experience than a fellow, it may not be at THAT BS. For an enlightening look at who’s STILL scrambling to fill positions, check in at the NAIS jobs site every once in a while)</p>
<p>In terms of percentage, bigger schools don’t necessarily have more teaching fellows. They have more course offerings too, so they can certainly find the right classes to place these teaching fellows. At this time at least, it is not the number of fellows but how they are placed (what classes they teach) that concerns me. I am not sure though if the long term trend is to have more teaching fellows to replace the retired faculty members after the economic downturn.</p>
<p>PDad, are you saying schools like Exeter, Andover, Lawrenceville, Choat etc., which have >= 800 students, are like research universities, in terms of teaching fellows playing a a bigger role in teaching just as TAs in the research universities? Was that your experience? Did you received an excellent LAC edcuation from your BS (I believe it’s Andover or Exeter)? Or was it more or less the same as what you got as an undergraduate from a research university?</p>
<p>Yes, sort of. I’m saying they’re trading on their names to lure quality (mind you) young teaching prospects who get groomed by them, and whom they pay very little. Most of those prospects move on, and yes, that’s an education for the student when your great young Calculus teacher is gone the next year for a prestigious West Coast day school. BUT, I also had plenty of exposure to the cream of the old guard in certain areas, too. The reality is, when I talk to other alums and they wax poetic about some iconic teacher who I knew by name, but never took a class with, it makes you realize that the sense of community at exactly the schools you listed is quite different than what most assume it will be at a prestigious private boarding school. Although these schools all have impressive low admit rates, in part it’s because they are so well “branded” that they get a host of long-shot starry eyed applicants. Since you asked this rhetorically above, the answer in my case was “no,” I didn’t even encourage my DC to CONSIDER my BS alma mater, in part because of who DC is, and in part because of what that sized school environment is like. I just don’t want to put my dollars there.</p>
<p>What do you gain? Well, you learn how to operate in the system (and I don’t mean this entirely pejoratively) early on, so when it comes to even larger institutions, you know how to find the gem instructors and also, realistically, how to negotiate some classroom situations that are less than ideal. But yes, it was startlingly similar to what I got next at a research U.</p>
<p>Also, this use of teaching fellows was definitely a big part of BS back when I was there, so I don’t see it as being related to our current economic doldrums…educational institutions are ALWAYS looking to maximize talent while containing costs.</p>
<p>PDad, part of your answer above shocked me, but from where I stand, if what you said is true, then the research u wouldn’t be too bad after all. I’d be thrilled if I could get the kind of education the kids at A or E are getting from a research u.</p>
<p>Yes, A & E definitely help those kids to understand how to navigate elite institutions, it’s the “hidden” part of the education, I suppose. But, it’s not without its costs, either. The politicing starts early. And I just don’t believe you can close the “sink or swim” gap with a student body–and faculty–that large, so it’s not right for every kid. In fact, it’s not right for many of the kids who go in thinking it’s right for them…but still, it is right for some (& they’re the one’s who turn around with the generosity that keep the places going).</p>
<p>Just to add a specific experience to an otherwise largely hypothetical conversation…my kid has had one teaching fellow this year. (At Exeter, students change teachers each term, so it’s unlikely that a student would have a teaching fellow for the entire year) His experience with this teacher seems to be about the same as his experience with the fall and winter term teachers. And the teacher just graduated from a great college that is now on my son’s radar–so there’s one plus.</p>