<p>D is (finally) starting to look at things like class size, TAs vs. profs, etc. for the various schools she’s applying to, and I thought I’d ask for some real world experience. Realistically, how many really large classes is she likely to have at Bama? Current major expectation is Economics/Math. She’ll have AP credit for European History, Statistics, Micro and Macro Economics and Environmental Science, and has already taken Calc I at local college. She’s had honors Accounting and Law in HS so would probably try to take honors sections of those classes. Thanks!</p>
<p>The phrase “really large classes” can sometimes be subjective. To some, a really large class is one of those large lecture rooms with 300+ kids in it. To others, a really large class is anything with 100+ kids in it. </p>
<p>This is how I define class size at various schools.</p>
<p>Under 30…small…(with 15 or under being very small)
31-50…med
51 - 99…large
100 - 400…very large
400+…mega sized</p>
<p>Nearly all schools have some large lecture classes…especially in the lower division classes. This surprises some people because some think small privates escape this issue. (My grad school son is taking an undergrad class for fun at a top private and they didn’t have enough seats in this class of about 100 students…so about 25 kids had to sit on the floor until a larger room could be found!)</p>
<p>Because my kids had about 45 AP credits when they came to Bama, they skipped most of the GenEd/Core classes which are typically the larger lecture classes (at any school). They’ve had very few large classes. I don’t think they’ve had any “really large classes” - which I would say are those 100+ classes. </p>
<p>this has been our experience…English writing classes are small (so the prof can read the essays), honors college classes are small, intro lecture classes are larger, science lecture classes can be large, but the labs are small, upper-division courses are often small (sometimes very small), but some upper-division courses which are just lecture-oriented might be larger.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bama has any of those mega-sized classes (like 500+ in large auditorium). I think when we looked this up last year, the largest lecture we could find was a Bio lecture of about 250. </p>
<p>Here’s some schools that I looked up recently…</p>
<p>% of classes with less than 20 students…</p>
<p>Alabama: 46% (38% have 20 -49 students)</p>
<p>Texas A&M: 21% (57% have 20 - 49 students)</p>
<p>Auburn: 24% (59% have 20 - 49 students)</p>
<p>FSU: 34%</p>
<p>UOklahoma: 41%</p>
<p>OkSU: 39%</p>
<p>UArk: 28%</p>
<p>UTex: 34%</p>
<p>UMiami: 53%</p>
<p>Texas Tech: 22%</p>
<p>TCU: 40% </p>
<p>UIUC: 34% (and 45% have 20-49)</p>
<p>Ohio State: 32% (and 48% have 20-49)</p>
<p>It depends on the course, but few economics courses will be over 50 students, apart from introductory courses. Math courses are often under 30 students once one gets past the classes required for engineering majors. Depending on if your daughter decides to be in the College of Business or the College of Arts and Sciences, she will have different requirements as far as non-major upper division courses. You can get a good idea of class sizes by looking up the current semester’s class schedules on myBama.</p>
<p>Thanks M2CK and Seatide. M2CK, your thoughts on class sizes are the same as mine. Seatide, when she originally did her application she put Math as her major, so was going into the College of Arts and Sciences. She’s since changed it to Economics in CBA because she definitely wants to be in the business school. I’ll go check out current classes; thanks for that suggestion.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with classes in the B-school since my kids were in A&S (math) and engineering.</p>
<p>I know that my older son’s math classes weren’t large…and some of the upper division math classes were less than 15 kids.</p>