<p>How large are the typical intro/freshman level classes like English and Psychology?
How are TAs used and are they effective? I've heard some horror stories at other large state schools.</p>
<p>Hi Pushydad, the big intro lecture classes are really large. My daughter took the 3-class series “Intro to the English Major” – she says the students called it English major bootcamp. I think --just trying to remember here-- 250 students? Something like that. It met twice a week with the professor lecturing, and then once a week there was a small group with a TA. The TAs lead discussion and focus in on certain aspects of the lecture and the reading for the week. I think the only other large scale classes she took were 2 classes in the Intro to Film series. Same basic set-up, but one of the large-group weekly meetings was longer so they could watch a film together.</p>
<p>She didn’t mind those large classes, even felt like she got a lot out of them and had very good luck with TAs. (Maybe not so much just ‘luck’ – she did talk to a lot people before registering for things.)</p>
<p>Her experience --just having the English and Film super-big class series-- is not typical though. I believe most students end up with more than that. The main reason was that she was in the honors college which is all small seminar-style classes. The English and Film intro classes were required for her major and one of her minors.</p>
<p>That said, she never said she really disliked them. I think she was fine with them. Probably would have liked them a lot less if she’d had to do a lot of them. No problem with the TAs though. She enjoyed the small group sessions quite a bit.</p>
<p>Oh yeah… just remembered something she told me. One time she had to arrive late for one of those big classes and had to take a seat in the back. She said the back was really bad. There was much more inattention and chit chat and texting and generally not paying attention and being really checked out of the lecture. She said is was totally different if you sat closer up – which she normally did. She never went near the back again after that one day.</p>
<p>thanks Rentof2. We’re going up to visit UO this weekend. It’s the only large school on D’s list so we will see. I expect the weather will be her biggest objection.</p>
<p>Yeah… it rains a lot. ;)</p>