<p>So what is the average class size for Columbia, especially if you're going to take classes geared towarsd neuroscience? On the website, it says something about the student-to-faculty ratio being like 2 or 3 to 1 for science classes. How true is this? And how large are the core classes usually? Does the size hinder the learning process in anyway, or do the professors make up for it by being really engaging? Thanks!</p>
<p>student-to-faculty ratio is a very misleading statistic.</p>
<p>the class size depends on the type of class, most significantly whether it's lecture or seminar. Math-and-science classes, especially introductory ones, tend to be lecture-style, so the classes are big but it really doesn't matter how big they are because either way you're listening to a lecturer the entire time, and then working with a TA or in groups on your own time.</p>
<p>In seminars, you're actually have a class discussion sometimes, and they tend to be smaller more intimate groups of 8-15. Many liberal-arts core classes (Lit Hum, CC, music hum, art hum, UW, etc) are taught in this fashion, with lit hum / CC having caps of 21 students, and others like UW having caps of 12.</p>
<p>some professors are born lecturers and will spellbind you while in class, make everything make sense the first time they talk about it, and make you feel like you really WANT to learn it all. there's actually a surprising number of them at columbia. others are clearly professors for their research abilities, and aren't so engaging, but they don't tend to teach intro classes that much. Department heads who organize who-teaches-what-when will realize that they want to put their best foot forward in their intro-level classes, so as to impress and recruit students to their department (because it affects their funding). so the better teachers teach a disproportionate number of intro classes, at least in technical majors. I can't really speak to the same in liberal-arts majors.</p>
<p>thanks for all that info. So, then has your overall experience with professors been a good one? I mean, after all the intro classes, were there still significant numbers of engaging professors teaching the classes?</p>
<p>you might google CULPA, which is Columbia students' reviews of their profs. On its main page, as well, you can link to the directory of classes and find the actual enrollments. Neuroscience might be spread over several departments, I'd think. Bio, Chem, Psych. As Denzera has suggested, look beyond the intro courses, which are lecture classes as they are at most universities.</p>
<p>thanks, i'll check that out.</p>