I think I speak for most HerCampus Tulane readers when I say the main thing that drew me to Tulane was its academics. We go to one of the best universities not only in the country, but in the world.
Now why is it that some of my professors have been, let’s just say, underwhelming? One of my professors this semester speaks in very broken English. The subject that he’s trying to teach is difficult enough, but is made far more complicated by the fact that you have to decipher what he’s saying. Another one could talk for hours if he had the chance; he goes over the allotted class time every single day. What’s more is that his class is extremely controversial. Every day, he attempts to portray his opinions as facts and shove them down his students’ throats. I have no problem with professors having opinions, but I do have a problem with them thinking that their opinions are the only answer.
Some of my professors have been so boring that they could have been speaking another language (in a non-language class, that is) and no one would have noticed. The worst is when professors don’t know who I am. After hearing about all the “personal attention” and small class sizes that Tulane has to offer, I get frustrated when professors don’t live up to those expectations and learn the names of their students in their 30-person lecture.
That’s not to say that every professor at Tulane is a letdown. There are plenty of them that are passionate, engaged, and truly challenge their students to get excited to learn the material of the class. It just seems that many of them are not helping their students get excited to come to class every day. We pay a lot of money to go here; we should be getting the highest-quality professors. College is a time for challenging yourself and learning new things; Tulane needs to step it up and find professors who enhance those ideals.