<p>I don’t disagree with you, GT, but consider most high school students aren’t looking ahead to and worried about how they will do in database systems or computer networks in their third year; they are looking ahead to how they will do in calculus and physics and statics in years one and two - the traditional “weed out” classes (though I hate that term). Those classes tend to be gigantic at those universities.</p>
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<p>OK, I understand. Yeah, lots of “auditorium seating” for those initial Calc/Physics courses when I was at MSU…and yes, not the best “learning setting”.</p>
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<p>Indeed. I did, however, manage to avoid the big auditorium classes in calculus while at similarly huge UIUC by taking an honors course for most of my math sequence. Calculus 1 through 3 were all no more than 30 or so people in the class because of it, and by the time I took differential equations and linear algebra, the classes were smaller anyway (though still in the 50 to 60 range). My physics courses were large (100 to 200 people) but I don’t think that was a detriment to me learning physics.</p>
<p>The only truly unfortunately huge class I ever really took was macroeconomics and Greek mythology, both with a lectures of 600 to 700 students. That really stunk, but it wasn’t an engineering course so I really didn’t care that much. To be honest, I probably would have been annoyed had I gone to a small school and been expected to be just as engaged in and put just as much effort into a mythology class as I did my thermodynamics class. I enjoyed the freedom to prioritize my effort quite a bit.</p>
<p>I went to 50,000+ student Ohio State my freshman year, and didn’t do well with the freshman classes of 300-400. I transferred to a school of about 3000, where the largest class I ever had was about 60 students, and did a lot better.</p>
<p>So for me, school size made all the difference in the world.</p>
<p>At E-R, the engineering/math/physics class sizes were generally in the 10-20 student range, with some of the humanities classes reaching upwards of 40. The biggest class I took had 35 students in it.</p>
<p>Looking back, I loved the small class sizes, although I don’t think you necessarily NEED to be in a small class in order to do well. I would consider it more of a luxury.</p>
<p>“35,000 is still small.” - LOL… but that’s because DS attends an engineering-only college with 350 students total. (He loves it, but it’s a niche-fit.) </p>
<p>Many students enjoy the advantages of attending a diverse large university with extensive engineering program. I liked attending a STEM-centric school of about 2500 students (some business and other majors, but mostly engineering and CS ). There was plenty of course availability. Other students might prefer colleges with more variety of majors, especially if engineering is a “maybe”.</p>
<p>Simba, if you stuck around you’d have found your later classes shrink drastically in size.</p>
<p>I think I would have flunked out before that, TimServo.</p>
<p>This was back in the 70s, when Ohio State didn’t exactly have a stellar academic reputation. Another thing I had a problem with was TAs who didn’t speak English. Loved going to football games, though.</p>
<p>Ohio State is a much better school now.</p>
<p>The TAs now speak fluent broken English.</p>
<p>I was the TA for the graduate Programming Languages class at Cajun State. Guilty as charged LOL :D</p>