Attn: College Frosh & Sophs: Access to classes and Class Sizes?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Among the key factors that some students look at in selecting a college is their ability to access the classes that they want early in their undergraduate experience. A second important consideration is how big the classes will be in the freshman and sophomore years. </p>

<p>For those currently attending college or have solid, direct knowledge of what is going on at various colleges, please weigh in on your experiences with getting the classes you wanted and how big or small the class sizes are. </p>

<p>For reference sake, here are the USWNR rankings of Top 50 national universities and the Top 20 LACs and their % of classes under 20 students:</p>

<p>Rank , % of classes under 20 students </p>

<pre><code> NATIONAL UNIVERSITIES
</code></pre>

<p>1 , 76% Yale
2 , 75% Caltech
3 , 74% U Penn
3 , 74% Northwestern
5 , 73% Stanford
5 , 73% Duke
5 , 73% Wash U
8 , 72% Princeton
8 , 72% U Chicago
8 , 72% Tufts
11 , 71% Columbia
12 , 69% Harvard
13 , 68% Brown
14 , 67% Vanderbilt
15 , 66% Johns Hopkins
15 , 66% Emory
15 , 66% Carnegie Mellon
15 , 66% Lehigh
15 , 66% Syracuse
20 , 64% Dartmouth
21 , 63% Brandeis
21 , 62% Rice
21 , 62% USC
21 , 62% U Rochester
25 , 61% MIT
25 , 61% UC Berkeley
27 , 60% Cornell
28 , 59% NYU
29 , 58% Georgetown
29 , 58% Case Western
31 , 57% Wake Forest
31 , 57% Tulane
33 , 55% Notre Dame
34 , 54% UCLA
35 , 50% UC Santa Barbara
36 , 49% U Virginia
37 , 47% U North Carolina
37 , 47% W&M
39 , 45% U Michigan
40 , 44% UC Irvine
41 , 43% U Wisconsin
41 , 43% UCSD
43 , 42% Georgia Tech
43 , 42% Rensselaer
45 , 39% Boston Coll
45 , 39% U Florida
47 , 37% U Illinois
48 , 36% U Washington
49 , 35% U Texas
50 , 34% UC Davis
51 , 30% Penn State</p>

<pre><code> LACs
</code></pre>

<p>1 , 79% Claremont McK
2 , 77% Hamilton
3 , 76% Swarthmore
4 , 75% Williams
4 , 75% Haverford
6 , 73% Pomona
7 , 72% Davidson
8 , 71% Oberlin
9 , 70% Middlebury
9 , 70% Smith
11 , 69% Vassar
12 , 68% Amherst
12 , 68% W&L
12 , 66% Grinnell
15 , 64% Wellesley
15 , 64% Carleton
15 , 64% Bowdoin
15 , 64% Wesleyan
19 , 63% Colgate
20 , 62% Harvey Mudd
21 , 53% US Naval Acad</p>

2

<p>At my school (UChicago), class size is largely dependent on a) what you’re studying, b) how it’s presented (lecture or discussion), and c) what level you’re studying at. For example, intro to Economics is a “big” lecture class-- in this context, “big” is 150 students, intermediate-level econ courses are about 40 students, while advanced-level courses are in the 20’s and 30’s. </p>

<p>That said, small classes are not difficult to find. Especially considering that many Chicago students are taking a lot of small, discussion-based classes for Core, the larger, lecture-based econ classes are a welcome change of pace.</p>

<p>Anyway, here was the way class sizes went for my first year, as a prospective English major. I also added what level the leaders of the class were at.</p>

<p>Fall:

  1. 50 students (lecture, head of department)
  2. 20 students (core class, discussion, all but dissertation grad student who was fabulous)
  3. 20 students (core class, discussion, assistant prof)</p>

<p>Winter:

  1. 20 students (core class, discussion, ABD grad student)
  2. 20 students (core class, discussion, senior prof)
  3. 20 students (core class, discussion, assistant prof)
  4. 10 students (language class, grad student)</p>

<p>Spring:</p>

<p>1) 20 students (core class, discussion, assistant prof)
2) 20 students (core class, discussion, assistant prof)
3) 20 students (history elective, discussion, senior prof)
4) 10 students (language class, grad student)</p>

<p>This fall:</p>

<p>1) 50 students (lecture by senior prof with 17-person discussion sections by grad students)
2) 15 students (for the major, discussion, ABD grad student)
3) 15 students (billed as a lecture, assistant prof, core class)
4) 33 students (lecture, core class, taught by a “lecturer”)</p>

3

<p>I’m a sophomore at Notre Dame, and access to classes can be a bit difficult to get all of the approvals, but the classes are generally kept under control. This semester my schedule doesn’t have any “large” classes:</p>

<p>ECON Statistics with 36 students
seminar with 11
Intro to Theology with 16
A Living Wage class with 4
ECON with 25
and Italian with 12 students</p>

<p>As a freshman the biggest class I had was Calculus 2 with 70 and change, but then my Calculus 3 class was only 8. The other classes were generally capped at 19 or had about 24-25.</p>