In 1985, a survey of students across the College of Agriculture at the University of Missouri-Columbia w s conducted to determine whether students had different attitudes about being taught by professors vs. teaching assistants (TAs). Some of the variables evaluated in the survey included age of the instructor, dress, authoritarian stance in class, accessibility, gender, and domestic vs. international TAs. The results of the survey indicate that students discount factors such as age, dress, and gender of the instructor in how they evaluate their educational experience. In terms of TAs, undergraduates possessed a very strong feeling that international TAs are more difficult to understand than domestic TAs. The results of the survey helped us at the University of Missouri-Columbia to determine that student evaluations of teaching are not highly influenced by cosmetic differences between instructors. Professionalism appears to be very important o students. Student evaluations likely reflect this interest in professionalism and course content. MArrYdiscussions of differences in how underTIMES, graduate students relate to faculty and graduate students presume that graduate teaching assistants (TAs) relate easier to the undergraduates than do faculty. This statement carries the implication that the more casual dress, closeness in age, and the relaxed manner of the TAs make it easier for them to relate to undergraduates. If these implications are valid, then cosmetic differences (i.e., age) may have real ramifications of teaching through student evaluations. If cosmetic differences are of significant importance to students, perhaps student evaluations of teaching are skewed in favor of these factors rather than course content. The objective of this survey was to assess students’ values regarding factors such as age, dress, and gender. We also hoped to gauge whether faculty or TAs are perceived as more effective teachers. Concern about student evaluations of teaching being reflections of cosmetic variables rather than valid assessments of the learning process may be addressed with the results of this survey. as the subject of the sentence. The 30 survey items addressed various concerns such as dress, age, formality within the class, and gender with agreement rated on a 1-to-5 scale. A response of 1 indicated strong agreement; a response of 5 indicated strong disagreement. A value of 3 indicated no preference or no opinion. The survey was distributed to several classes in the College of Agriculture during April of the 1985 spring semester. The courses encompassed freshmen classes through those classes offered for seniors. After collecting the 356 usable responses, the data were compiled and