Michigan vs Boston College

GoBlue81
Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:14:28 +0000

At my school, some classmates and I went to dinner at a teacher’s house during the first week of school. Our classes are small and the priority of our instructors (and no they are not TAs) is teaching, not their own research or their own agenda.

Are you talking about Boston College? I presume you are not … 'cause according to US News, Michigan has more smaller classes than BC (43% vs 38%) and more full-time faculties (92% vs 79%).

This thing about TA teaching is exaggerated. In Michigan, there are only a few courses taught by TAs. For introductory courses, it’s more likely that a professor will do the lecture 3-4 times a week and the TAs will handle the discussion sessions. If you place out of Calculus 1 and 2, chances are you may not have any TA-lecture classes.



the priority of our instructors…is teaching, not their own research or their own agenda.

Good for them. On the other hand, they have to make some sacrifice on their own research and publication, right?.. Don’t get me wrong. I agree that universities should put more emphasis on teaching. It’s just that the current system at major research universities places a lot more emphasis on research and grants.