<p>I am currently choosing between McGill and Toronto (Trinity) and have one day to figure it out. I have heard that both schools have intimidatingly large classes with little opportunities for discussion or interaction with professors.</p>
<p>Thoughts from any current students? Use hard numbers if possible. I'd also be interested to hear how it impacted your academic life, or, if you didn't mind that much.</p>
<p>FYI I would probably be majoring in English or Political Science, esp. Political Science.</p>
<p>Ok well I don’t know about the majors you’re considering… but I have a friend at UofT in her 1st year, studying life sciences and she said her bio class is HUGE. She said it has 1500 people. Hence there is very little interaction between professor and student.</p>
<p>They can be large, but it’s comparable to any large Canadian urban campus, including Mcgill. That said, this is generally the case in the first year and in a few life science/ social science courses like intro psych and intro sociology. You can easily take these courses at a suburb campus to beat the class size. However, there are tutorials for each of these with class sizes under 15 so the courses overall will seem more intimate. And you can get to know your profs… just drop in on them in their office hours. Also, the class size issue quickly disappears after first year and class sizes are relatively small 20 to 25 and even smaller in many cases. Frankly I loved the large classes. I will explain… In first year you will be introduced tothe idea that Toronto is the most diverse city in the world. once you get to a large class you will get perspectives on issues from students from all sorts of backgrounds. it’s quite wonderful.You will be introduced to perspectives on issues you didn’t know existed.</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread on this subject:</p>
<p>I have 3 Ds at U of T, two in undergrad and one in law school. None has felt that they lacked personal attention. Although some first year classes, in some disciplines, can be large, upper year classes are small in comparison and they all have developed good relationships with some profs, and have had no problem with getting excellent letters of recommendation for grad and law schools. You won’t find any English classes with 1000 students, as may be possible for an intro first year class in the Sciences. Most upper year English classes are small enough to be participatory. Even in the large intro classes, my Ds never had an issue with the size. Most will also have small tutorial sections which allow for discussion in a smaller group once a week. Anyone who feels a lack of interaction or relationship with their profs isn’t making the effort. :)</p>