Although Dartmouth prides itself on its commitment to undergraduates and the fact that professors -- not students -- teach courses, each year a handful of classes are taught by graduate students with master's degrees.
But many students who have taken classes taught by graduate students say they did not mind the fact that their teacher did not have a doctorate.
Graduate students teach five to 10 courses per year, according to George Wolford, associate dean of the faculty for the social sciences.
Wolford noted this is far less than any comparable university. He said about 20 percent of courses at other universities are taught by graduate students.
At Dartmouth, about 1 percent of courses each year are taught by graduate students.
"Dartmouth has a much stronger commitment to undergraduate teaching than a comparable research university," he said.
Part of the reason why only a few Dartmouth courses are taught by graduate students is the small number of graduate students at the College, Wolford said.
Dean of Graduate Studies Edward Berger said there are 213 graduate students in nine departments attending the College this year.
Berger said graduate students in their final year of study are "certainly qualified" to teach courses, but added that "it's not a good idea to have graduate students formally responsible for a Dartmouth course."
Despite the fact that only a few courses each year are not taught by professors, some students disagreed with the way the College portrays the role of graduate student teaching to prospective students.
Karen Gibbs '95 said it is not fair to have graduate students teach courses because the College tells undergraduates they will not be taught by graduate students.
Megan Luce '96, a mathematics major, said the way Dartmouth advertises that it does not have graduate students teach courses could be a problem.
She said she feels a lot of math courses are taught by graduate students.
Luce took Math 25: Number Theory in the fall taught by math graduate student Tamara Veenstra and is currently taking Math 23: Differential Equations with Naveed Shams, another Mathematics graduate student.
Wolford said he thinks admissions officers might be conveying the false impression that no graduate students teach courses at the College.
But Senior Associate Director of Admissions Maria Laskaris said, "In our publications we state that the majority of classes are taught by faculty members."
She said although the Admissions Office highlights the fact that Dartmouth is a college where primarily professors teach, they do not say faculty members are the only people teaching courses.
Michele Hernandez, assistant director of admissions, said tour guides for prospective students are trained to say 98 to 99 percent of courses at the College are taught by professors.
The Sciences
The mathematics department actually requires qualified graduate students to teach one course per year, said Department Chair Kenneth Bogart.
The students who teach have a master's degree, have been accepted for candidacy to the Ph.D. program and have attended a mandatory teaching course, he said.
"Typically we use some graduate students in Math 1, 2 and 23" on a regular basis, Bogart said.
The number of courses per year taught by graduate students in the math department "fluctuates between half a dozen and a dozen," Bogart said.
Graduate students allow the department to reduce the size of classes and also give students an opportunity to "learn a course from someone who is really excited about the subject matter," he said.
Another advantage is that teaching experience helps graduate students acquire better jobs in the future, he said.
Perry Fizzano, a computer science graduate student, said his teaching experience at the College helped him get a good job.
Fizzano taught Computer Science 15: Data Structures and Programming in the winter of 1994 and Computer Science 45: Design and Analysis of Algorithms last term.
He said although the computer science department does not require graduate students to teach courses, he wanted to have the experience to see if he liked teaching.
"I really thought that I wanted to be a professor," he said, "I asked to [teach] and they let me do it."
Susan Ettinger '96 was in both of Fizzano's Computer Science courses.
"He was really good at presenting the information," she said. "Other students respected him as if he was a tenured professor."
Miranda Barrows '96 also thought Fizzano was just as good as some Dartmouth professors she has had in the past.
"I thought that Perry was a great teacher," she said.
Shams, who is teaching Math 23 this term and taught Math 2: Calculus with Algebra and Trigonometry last term, said graduate students put a lot of work into teaching, because their reputation is on the line.
Veenstra, who taught Math 25 in the fall, said the "math department tends to attract graduate students who are generally interested in teaching."
She said the experience was helpful and that she learned a lot about teaching. She said she hopes to teach at a college after she graduates.
Todd Brackett '95, who was in Veenstra's Math 25 class, said he did not find it much different from other math courses he has taken.
"I thought she was a good teacher," he said.
He described her as "a little nervous in the beginning, but she did a good job."
Luce, who also had Veenstra Fall term, said although she had a good experience in the fall, she thinks having graduate students teach courses can be both good and bad.
Professors have more experience with teaching, but graduate students are more interested and available to help students learn, she said.
Gibbs agreed that Veenstra did a really good job teaching Math 25.
"At first I was a little apprehensive when I heard that a graduate student would be teaching," she said. "I think if they're qualified and if they know the material it's fine."
Berger said the other science departments with graduate students are astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth science and physics.
He said sometimes laboratory sections are led by teaching assistants, but other than that "I just don't know of any courses taught by graduate students."
The Social Sciences
Wolford said the Psychology department is the only department in the social sciences that has graduate students.
He said graduate students teach courses in Psychology only when there is an emergency.
For example, he said, two years ago a graduate student taught Psychology 24: Personality and Abnormal Psychology, because the professor who usually taught the course was on maternity leave.
The student got "rave reviews," he said.
According to Wolford, fourth- and fifth-year graduate students are often better teachers than new professors.
He said when an unexpected vacancy arises, the department can either hire a visitor from the outside or use a graduate student to teach the course.
It is "not easy to always find a Ph.D. visitor from the outside to teach on short notice," he said.
The Humanities
Mary Jean Green, associate dean of the faculty for the humanities, said "students are not assigned as principal instructors of any courses" in the humanities.
The only current graduate program in the humanities is in electro-acoustic music, she said. A graduate program in the comparative literature department will begin in September, Green said.
Although the department of French and Italian does not have a graduate program, an exchange graduate student from France does teach introductory level French courses.
Each year the top graduating senior from the French department is sent to France to teach English while a graduate student from France comes to Dartmouth, Green said.
According to Green, the person who comes to the College has completed a good part of their graduate work and has been trained as a professor in France.
This year's student is Isabelle Koper, who taught Introductory French 1 and French 2 during the fall, French 1 Winter term and is teaching French 2 and French 3: Intermediate French this term.
Koper said this is her first teaching experience and she is still studying and writing her doctoral in France.
"I just love my students and I think they like me too," she said.
Green said some native speaker without Ph.D.s sometimes do teach introductory language courses.
There are also people on the faculty who have not completed their dissertations who are given the title of Instructor, she said.
But those people must complete their dissertations within two years of their appointment to the College.
Juan Leon '96, who was in Koper's French 1 class last term said "She's just an extraordinary professor."
Leon said he thinks she is much more active than other professors and can relate better to students.
He said he could relate to Koper better outside of the classroom as well, adding that he sometimes hung out at her house and even went to parties with her.
He said as long as graduate students have a good knowledge of the subject matter, he has no problem being taught by them.
