Posted by Carole Nowicke on July 18, 2003 at 10:03:34:
In Reply to: Best, Current Tuba Professors? posted by Mike on July 18, 2003 at 00:03:24:
What output measures are you looking at to decide what constitutes "best"? There is an awful lot of "spin" on school rankings. Unless you look at studies which base rankings on measurements (faculty publications, funding, # of ensembles, student placements, etc) you're often looking at glitter and not substance. Are you in fact looking at a "school," because you wish to obtain an education from that particular institution, or do you wish to study with a specific individual? Does that individual appear to be likely to stay at the institution until you would graduate? Is the instructor coming up for tenure? If they've been teaching close to six years, they may soon be a memory, especially if the school has a bad track record in that department (the library school at U of Maryland for example, was legendary for not giving very fine young faculty tenure) Nearing retirement? Planning a sabbatical where you might be given to the world's most inept grad student (or the future pedagogical star now given a chance to blossom)? "Because I've heard of so-and-so" may not mean that that person would be the best teacher for *you*.