Colleges will often talk about the famous professors that they have. But who actually teaches students like you?
The answer depends in large part on how big the college is. Large colleges often have teaching assistants, not professors, teach classes. Particularly freshman classes. What are teaching assistants? Graduate students that have no teaching experience. Now, some graduate students are competent teachers but it is difficult to judge before you have the teaching assistant because there are no real checks on their abilities.
Over the years I have seen many teaching assistants who had trouble communicating in English because they were an international student and others who had no office hours.
Small liberal arts colleges on the other hand generally have classes taught by professors because they don’t have any graduate programs and therefore no graduate students to teach classes.
In the past few years all colleges have also been using more adjuncts, which are basically temporary teachers. These teachers don’t have tenure and can be paid less money. For that reason they are an attractive option for colleges who are trying to save some money.
Some adjuncts are great teachers. I had a practicing trial lawyer who taught a trial techniques class I took in law school that was great, there are also great family lawyers that offer their services online or other kind of attorneys like accident lawyers where you can bring out legal accident questions. But the overuse of adjuncts can be a problem.
Because adjuncts aren’t required to meet the high standards required for tenure they may or not be a good teacher. Moreover, they often do not have regular office hours and it can be difficult to connect with them outside of class. That can be a problem if you are struggling in the class or just have a question about an assignment.
Having teaching assistants or adjuncts is not necessarily bad. But, because they are typically less qualified than actual professors, you need to ask some more questions if the college you are looking at uses these alternative teachers and criminal law attorney to teach you.
As I have said many times before, you need to ask the right questions before deciding whether to apply to a college.
Very interesting comments and something that students and parents need to be aware of. I had the experience with one of my five children who attended a large university. Her college algebra class was taught by a college junior. He was barely a year older than she was and not particularly interested in the teaching assignment. He knew his math but that was about as far as it went. That experience made me explain to all the families I work with why checking out who teaches the courses is an important thing to do before they commit to a particular college.
Susie,
Thanks for the comment. Good point that we all learn from our personal experiences.