Big School, Small Classes

<p>Boston University is one of my top choices, but I’d love some insight into the type of classes. I know it’s a large school, but are most classes small enough to have good discussions and professor interaction? I don’t want to feel like another number in an all giant-lecture style classes. </p>

<p>I plan on entering as a Biology major on the pre-med track with a minor in Journalism.</p>

<p>intro lectures (100 level courses), and especially all the premed courses, are in large lecture halls with ~80-150 students depending on the section. however, each science class usually has discussion, lab, or both that are in much smaller groups (~15-20 people) with TA’s and TF’s that you get to have close interaction with. and all the professors have office hours for you to come and talk to them, and you can also talk to them before and after class. you will also have to take courses like writing, which are ~20 students per class.</p>

<p>i can’t tell you much about journalism, sorry about that :-/.</p>

<p>and starting as early as sophomore year when you take upper level classes, the numbers go down significantly. all my classes senior year were 15 people.</p>

<p>I’m a freshman and last semester one of my classes was a big lecture class with way over a hundred kids, but my other three classes had approximately 20 kids. And classes that are that big usually have discussion sessions with TA’s which have about 10-20 students per class. One of my discussion class only had 8 students! And you can visit your TA or your professor during their office hours.</p>

<p>This semester all my classes are 20 or less.</p>

<p>I’m a second semester freshman at BU, so I can speak for the eight courses I have taken/am taking. Of the eight, two of them have been fairly large lecture classes. They are both political science courses. First semester Intro to Comparative Politics was probably about 150 people, with a discussion section of about 20. This semester Intro to Political Theory is probably 80-100 people, with a discussion section of about 8. </p>

<p>My other courses have all had 25 people or less, with a few as low as 10. </p>

<p>To contextualize my experience, I’m undeclared in CAS on the divisional studies path, and I haven’t taken any math or science courses.</p>