The value of having well known professors

I was flipping through the Wall Street Journal this morning and saw a Kenan-Flagler professor quoted in an article about potential sources of tech support for small businesses. This is the professor who taught the managing in the I.T. sector class that I took during this past Mod IV. This is not the first time in the past seven days that I have seen a former professor quoted in a major publication. Last week I picked up the latest issue of Fortune Magazine and saw a printed discussion between two economists on whether Americans are saving enough for retirement. One of them is an economist at Dartmouth University who was my professor for the intro to macroeconomics class at UVA.

 

Seeing my old economics professor’s picture on the pages of Fortune Magazine got me thinking about the benefits of having attended a supposed prestigious school such as UVA. I have been told, I don’t remember by whom, that one of the supposed benefits of attending an institution such as UVA is that you are more likely to have professors who are at the top of their fields and somehow this enhances your education. While I value every drop of knowledge I received (intentionally as well as accidentally) during my undergraduate years, I don’t agree that having an instructor who is considered a leader in his respective field necessarily contributes to one’s learning. This particular professor creatively used graphics drawn on a transparent slide to explain the multiplier effect in such a way that I will never forget it. But yet I don’t think the fact that he was a well published academic made me learn any more material or learn the material any better. I could have been just as adequately prepared by sitting in a classroom of thirty led by a graduate student instead of a “super-star” professor teaching in an auditorium of 400.

 

The only real value to having been taught by a big name professor is bragging rights, which I am exercising this minute.