<p>Are freshman intro courses massive, where you get no personal attention? Specifically: Economics, Art History, Political Science, Psychology, Literature?</p>
<p>Some are, some aren’t. For instance, there was two offerings of Econ 110 (Macro). One was a large lecture, met x2 a week and had a discussion group. Another iteration offered was 4 or 5 individual classes, offered at different times, led by PhD students. These were much smaller classe. Because my schedule forced me to take a less popular time slot, I got into one that had only five students! It was great b/c the instructor was very dedicated to each of us. We sat around a table and he went over topics – a fantastic experience. </p>
<p>Every year, there will be big lectures in some very popular subjects or by popular instructors. But the discussion groups are pretty good. If there is too many people, yale just breaks out the checkbook and grabs more TAs to assist the prof.</p>
<p>In general about 80% of classes have less than 25 people.</p>
<p>Here’s where incoming freshman need to utilize fully “shopping period”. Do a search about that here on the Yale forum and you’ll see its benefits.</p>
<p>Something to remember, too: Often, when a course is huge, it’s because it’s a really great course with a professor who knows how to make the massive lecture a valuable experience. When I was at Yale, the biggest course was always Vin Scully’s Intro History of Art course, and I promise you that no one who took it regretted it. (In fact, the room was always packed to the rafters with people who weren’t even registered for the course.) </p>
<p>There were discussion sections, of course, and TAs who DID pay personal attention to you. The TAs are Yale grad students, which is hardly chopped liver. TAs I had in lecture courses, with the passage of time, turned into department chairs at Harvard, Yale, and Michigan, and in one case a successful screenwriter/producer.</p>