<p>Is the large student body at BU something to be concerned about? Are the classes too big? I know there are smaller discussion classes afterward, but I guess these will mostly be taken by TAs. I hope professors are accessible and studying is not an on-your-own thing, as it is in universities like McGill and big state univs like UMich.</p>
<p>Is the student population at BU too high for an above average student? Will there be much competition for students in the area of pre-med/science/neuroscience ?</p>
<p>ben: introductory classes are really large in the premed/science intro courses (the ones im familiar with) but professors are more than happy to work with you one on one. they’re all required to hold office hours and normally wind up twiddling their thumbs bcuz students don’t show up. discussions are usually taught by tf’s.</p>
<p>oblangata: there is competition throughout the country at every university in pre-med and the sciences. as long as you do above average in the course (exam avg’s are given once they’re graded) the you’re guaranteed to be in the b range. i finished human physiology and premed with a 3.7 after 4 years, so it is definitely feasible to do well as long as you’re not expecting grades to be given away.</p>
<p>It’s true that professors wish students would come in. </p>
<p>If you look through the discussion forum for medical school, you’ll see how the admissions process works.</p>
<p>Professors hope students would come in? That certainly does not seem too positive. I would have preferred a more intellectually involved student body. What about undergraduate and graduate research? And btw, what are tf’s?</p>
<p>It’s like that at every school, ben_breeg. It doesn’t mean we’re not an intellectually involved student body, it just means that some of us have other pursuits besides using our free time talking to professors. Which also isn’t to say that a lot of students don’t do it. Many come in before or after class to ask questions; others prefer to arrange study groups with other students instead. Some just email the prof with questions, and I do know many people who go to every single office hour offered by the prof.</p>
<p>We have a program at BU called UROP, which stands for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. You can do research with a professor of your choosing in an area of your choosing. You can design the whole project yourself or just jump on a project already in progress. [url=<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/urop/]UROP[/url”>Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program]UROP[/url</a>]</p>
<p>TF’s are teaching fellows, or graduate students who teach the smaller sections of the big lectures.</p>
<p>Every school and I mean every university or large college breaks down by department. If you’re a chemistry major at BU, for example, you’re in a small department which has a large graduate program. This means you’re involved in research - and there is a weekly seminar about research. If you’re in SMG, then your life revolves more around your working groups. Etcetera. </p>
<p>BTW, an article posted recently discussed how Clemson games ratings, as described by themselves. One of the methods was to game class size by creating more small classes in some areas while letting some classes get bigger; they’d get credit for the extra small ones but the larger ones, which of course would handle perhaps even more students overall, wouldn’t count against them. My point isn’t to rag on Clemson, which may never have been mentioned in this forum before, but to note that class size is not a simple thing. Some classes are better taught by lecture, so what does it matter if you have 45 or 100 people in the hall? Your sections at a research university will be taught by TA’s or TF’s or whatever they call them.</p>
<p>I was an engineering major at BU until i transfered out. In general BU was to big for me and it felt impersonal. There are good teacher sna d bad ones like any university. My freshman year classes probably consisted of about 40-50 students. You really are just another number but the professors are there if you need help. Honestly though BU is a big school it might as well turn into a public university.</p>
<p>Where are you now? And how did you do at BU?</p>
<p>I understand your point about the class sizes, Lergnom, but I must say I am a bit unsure about TFs teaching smaller sections. A lot of the TFs can be foreign students with poor language skills and little teaching experience. I might be wrong about this, though. I just turned down URochester, which is known for its small size, and I chose BU for the city and the diversity of the student body. I know I made a bit of a compromise on the size issue, but I hope that in the end it won’t matter as I expect the classes to get much smaller by junior and senior year. At least that’s what they told me on the phone; the rep also said that by that time, most classes become just discussion classes, i.e. the lecture and discussion aren’t any longer two different parts.</p>
<p>FWIW, I’ve never had any problems with TFs. I actually sometimes prefer them to profs because they’re younger and easier to relate to. I would often go to their office hours instead of the prof’s. As for them being foreign students, a lot of professors are the same way. BU does a good job of ensuring that TFs and profs can be understood, but if you’re really worried about it just cruise ratemyprofessors.com before you pick a section.
Classes do get a lot smaller by junior and senior year, even sophomore in many cases. As a junior this year most of my classes were about 15 people and I had a couple with about 50.</p>
<p>If language is an issue, it’s also a problem at Yale & Harvard where they have a ton of TA’s, especially in the sciences, from other countries. It would also be a problem at any research university. In other words, not really an issue. Well, maybe in some sciences but not likely any more; it was more of an issue 20 or 30 years ago when language instruction overseas was more limited.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to look at Rochester, which is a good school. They list their class size distribution and it’s probably not that different from BU, adjusting for the literal size of the schools and thus the number of classes… Rochester has 10 classes with more than 200 and 18 with more than 100 and then 59 with more than 50. These I’m sure break down into sections.</p>
<p>I am trying to transfer to BU from the University of Central Florida-which is the 6th largest school in the country with around 50,000 students. In my opinion BU’s student population is not as bad as the numbers might lead you to think. BU’s undergrad population (~13,000) is tiny compared to UCF’s. When you divide that number between all the different colleges/schools within BU I think you get a more realistic number for your particular field of study-which is what matters. Core/Freshman classes will be big- you should expect that and the TF’s are mixed. Professors almost always want their students to do well in their classes and usually have a genuine interest in your learning. Remember that a professor’s job at a university like BU includes teaching, research, and publication within their field. They may not have office hours every day, in fact most only have them about twice a week; however if it is that important to you, you’ll make it a point to be there, even if it is at an odd hour and they will appreciate the initiative. Office hours also give you a chance for the teacher to get to know you in an otherwise large sea of faces. Classes will get smaller the higher level they get. My 4000 level lit class had about 18 students. It was very intimate and the discussions were great. To sum my post up I would like to say that in a large university (and in BU’s case a well funded one) the advantage despite the large student body is the numerous resources and opportunities available to you. No one is going to hold your hand through the process though, so success is entirely dependent on yourself and your drive/initiative/motivation to make the most out of those opportunities.</p>
<p>your numbers are wrong that is the population of BU grad students…BU undergrad is roughly 18,500, They are the largest school after Umass which has roughly 20,000. If you integrate graduate school numbers BU is the largest school in MA by far.</p>
<p>Heres a full list
Undergraduates</p>
<p>Umass: 20,000
Boston University: 18,500
Northeastern: 15,000
Boston College: 9,000
WPI: 3,000 * reason why i transferred to WPI = )</p>
<p>Also on a side note everyone touts research at BU…its not very prevalent at the undergrad level. I tried to assist in part time research during winter break and got denied. Research however is abundant at the graduate level.</p>
<p>The number is actually about 16,000 and between 20 different schools including full and part-time students 3,000 isnt that much. Here is the link to the facts and figures section of the BU website where I am basing my info off of-<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/dbin/infocenter/content/index.php?pageid=873&topicid=12”>http://www.bu.edu/dbin/infocenter/content/index.php?pageid=873&topicid=12</a>
And here is the list of students broken down by school-
[Boston</a> University Information Center](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/dbin/infocenter/content/index.php?pageid=902&topicid=12]Boston”>http://www.bu.edu/dbin/infocenter/content/index.php?pageid=902&topicid=12)
You have to find your niche at any school-and trust me you can. I’m on the rowing team at UCF and was able to connect with a small group of people and make friends that became a support system for me.</p>
<p>superstar- my post has less to do with numbers than sharing my experience at a large research university and an individual’s relationship to the school and student body. I do agree with you that research is more prevalent at the graduate level though it is not irrelavent at the undergrad. Don’t get me wrong a large university is not for everyone.</p>
<p>You could go to Clemson where they’ve now admitted - and then denied, of course - that they massage class sizes to maximize their ratings points. If a class is say 23, they’ll keep it below 20. If a class is 48, they’ll let it get bigger because that doesn’t count against. They may add sections to increase the count of below 20 classes. </p>
<p>And of course they admitted the rate every single competitor as below average.</p>
<p>superstar, im sorry that u were denied the opportunity to do research. however, every one of my friends that wanted to do research at BU as an undergrad did, including in alzheimer’s and the cancer research center at bmc. another friend of mine who majored in bmb did research in amyloidosis and published a thesis; others of my friends used their research to achieve work for distinction. i have to go against your claim and say that research is insanely prevalent at BU, and anyone can get involved depending on how hard you work for the position and the connections you make with professors.</p>
<p>Ali, your going off a small and biased sample. Sciences and biomedical engineering get the most funding out of all colleges @ BU, yes research might be more prevalent in that area but its not abundant for the school as a whole. I still stand by my statement and say that most of the research is saved for the grad student…i had friends who were in the sciences that did “Research” but they said it was nothing more than shadowing and steralizing instruments.</p>
<p>huh, this is probably just me since im more specialized in the sciences, but are there opportunities to do research in other fields? and if so what are they cuz im really curious now?</p>
<p>AliAngel. I am an English/Lit student. “Research” for someone with my major could include something like writing essays in what we call ‘literary theory’. For example I might write an essay that explores the relationship between carribbean literature and the influences that British imperialism/colonialism has had on those authors (postcolonial theory). I would then try to get my essay published in a scholarly literary journal.</p>