Ok so my biggest class isn’t even as big as some other people’s but I’m coming from a tiny high school so 10 ppl in a class to 100 is a big jump for me. It’s a class for my major so I don’t like feeling so invisible in class.
My sister suggested that I come up with something to talk about for office hours even if I’m not struggling with the material but this prof does not have office hours. He said we can make an appointment with him if we need help but that adds a lot of pressure for me cuz it’s like I need a “good enough” reason to make an appointment.
Should I just stick it out this quarter and wait till I get to the upper level courses (which are much smaller)? I actually emailed him a question I had and he sent a pretty lengthy response but he doesn’t know who I am in class
I would get there early and sit in the front. Some large classes are discussion based… if that is the case… get involved. I would stay after and introduce myself, thank him for the email, and make an appt to meet in his office- bopper’s question is a good one to ask.
Casually make a friendly comment to him before (if he’s not busy setting things up for the lecture) or after class (if he’s not rushing out) every few days. Mention your name - it’s likely he would like to be better at remembering student names. Send him a real world example of something mentioned in class. Essentially, interact with him as if there were only 10 people in the class!
Sit in the first row, right in front of the professor’s desk.
For each class, when you’re doing the reading, write down questions in your notebook’s margins - either something you want to know more about or something you don’t quite grasp or don’t see the connection to what came before.
Same thing during the lecture.
Do this for each class you’re taking.
Go to office hour for each class, bringing your notebook.
For the lecture, at the end of class go to the podium, thank the professor for his/her detailed answer, explain you were really interested in… because s/he [professor] raised a point you hadn’t thought of…And don’t forget to introduce yourself. Ask if you could come discuss the reading on 10/3, which is on a day the professor indicated s/he can meet with students.
(See if there’s an honors version of the 100-people class that you could switch into - honors seminars tend to be smaller in size - email the professor to see if you could switch, explaining your qualifications to keep up with an honors seminar ie., you took the following AP classes in HS and got an A, and proving you’re interested in format (discussion) and the subject matter, i., are fascinated by…[discussed in second lecture] and hope to study it more in-depth, etc.)
My FAVORITE class at UT-Austin was American History with over 300 students. The professor, George Forgie, was an incredible story teller and assigned lots of awesome books for us to read. I made a habit of visiting him frequently during office hours. He tried to convince me to switch majors from engineering to history, ha! If I had avoided the class because of its size, I would have missed out on a lot.
I had other large classes, too. I just made it a point to get to know the prof. I had an advantage in that my dad was a professor so I was not intimidated by the teachers. They’re real people who like teaching or they would be in a different profession.
I understand and did sit in the front of the class at times. However, I am not comfortable with !it’s of people close. Never could stand students chewing and cracking gum close and the smell. I found I could sit near the front and we the board by sitting next to the wall. After the first day or so after classmates have found their chairs, figure out what place works for you.
@yauponredux@bopper@Mandalorian@bookmama22@twogirls@stradmom@MYOS1634@MaineLonghorn@zannah thank you to everyone for your responses! I haven’t been able to get up the courage to introduce myself after class and like I said he doesn’t have office hours, but I have been participating a bit more in class so he does know my face at least which is progress. And I did attend office hours for my other major course so that prof definitely knows me now (we talked for like 45 minutes about the class and no other students were there). Also it turns out that, when the prof whose office hours I went to was getting his PhD, he was supervised my my other prof. Not that it helps me in any way, but I found that interesting. The good news is that I can’t use the Q that @bopper suggested because it’s known to be a not so difficult course, and he actually said that himself too.
Bottom line is I’m, slowly but surely, starting to get used to the different environment.