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I have taken classes in Physics, Math, and CS in a top 20 ranked US university and a university ranked in the 200s. The difference in teaching skill and the dif
by newen 6y ago
I have taken classes in Physics, Math, and CS in a top 20 ranked US university and a university ranked in the 200s. The difference in teaching skill and the difficulty in the materials taught for the same course is massive and very noticeable.
This is not even to go into the research that the professors do and the academic levels that the students are in. The difference is huge.
- 0xffff2 6y ago>The difference is huge. Which way? My experience was that my (not quite top 20, but close) university professors were an extremely mixed bag. None of them were half as good as my best community college professors, and some of them were downright awful. I would be truly shocked if you told me that lower ranked universities were worse.
- newen 6y agoFor one, courses were significantly more difficult and the homework was harder in the top 20 university. For example, the junior level CS algorithms course I took at both were so different that I wouldn't even call the one I took in the 200s ranked university an actual algorithms course. This was just the worst case though; the other classes were better than this class but the differences were significant. I agree though that it can be a mixed bag in that there were good and bad teachers in both universities but I found the top 20 university had in general professors who consistently taught better, the courses were better structured, and the professors seemed more motivated to perform well than the 200s ranked university. There were a number of exceptions on both sides but the exceptions favored the top 20 university.