Class sizes at U Chicago seem too large?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

Actual students or those with information, please let me know if I am misreading things.

When I go to U Chicago’s website, you are able to access the schedule of classes for several different terms. A perusal of various departments seems to show that class sizes are often far larger than I would have expected—there are no classes of the “200 kids in freshman Biology” nature, but there is class after class over 30 or even over 40 students, including at the middle levels not just freshman. This does not compare well with most of the better LACs (which cap often at 20-25) or even with Honors and upper-level course offerings at mid-tier state flagships (for example, U Kansas’s offerings, once you get past introductory courses, are no bigger and often smaller). What gives? What is typical at U Chicago?

2

Oh this reminds me I need to pre-register for classes.

Idk, depends on the class and how they want to teach it. If it’s going to be a lecture (even if it’s upper level) there’s really no point in capping it at 20, so most lectures are a bit larger. Profs still bother to learn your names, I promise. In technical classes, they seem to get the ratio at about 15 people per instructor, so a math class with 30 will have one TA in addition to the prof, a CS class with 45 might have 2, etc.

If it’s a discussion it’s going to be smaller. I haven’t seen a single discussion above 20. If you want more small classes, just take discussions - but having all discussions all the time is exhausting! I think everyone’s grateful for having a large(ish) lecture that they don’t feel like if they miss their alarm once everyone in the class will notice that they’re gone.

I think my largest class here has been like 50? None of my friends are at LACs but my friends at Princeton, Brown, Cornell, Georgetown, etc. (similar elite mid-sized universities) have had way, way bigger classes in similar subjects to what I’m taking. We do have a few large lectures but those are stuff like gen chem and you break into small lab sections every week anyways in addition to lecture.

My smallest class has been 3, FWIW. It was an obscure language.

3

You can search for all the classes offered in any given quarter at this website and it will show you the actual and max students for any class.

https://coursesearch.uchicago.edu/psc/prdguest/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/UC_STUDENT_RECORDS_FL.UC_CLASS_SEARCH_FL.GBL

4

I’ve been really happy with class sizes for my 2nd year son. He’s had 12 classes with less than 20 students and 7 greater than 20. The IBL honors calculus class he was in ended up with 10 or 11 students and the Humanities class (Philosophical Perspectives) had 12 students. As Hyde Snark said, there have also been lecture classes with up to 50 students, but he also appreciates the variety. It’s often the case that quite a few students will withdraw from classes after the first few weeks resulting in significantly lower numbers than enroll. He’s enrolled in another class right now that started at 18 and now has less than 10.

5

My classes last quarter were all intro or core lectures. I had three classes of ~75 and one massive lecture (~150). My classes this quarter include a 30-person lecture, a 40-person lecture, and a ~200-student lecture. This followed a year where most of my classes were seminars. So I have some thoughts on this. They boil down to: lectures are what the professor makes of them.

One professor (a very smart dude from the Harris School) lectured at the class for 10 weeks. He knew his stuff, graded rationally, and made an intro class for my major interesting enough - but nothing more.

Another, with less of a pedigree, made a 75-person lecture interactive and interesting, and outsourced more detailed discussions to 2-3 TA sections during the quarter. I’m taking another class with said professor this quarter, and it’s the highlight of my week.

The third of my 75-person lectures was the quintessential lecture; content in class, labs outside it, the odd TA session, and a nice professor whose door was always open. I enjoyed it, but that was mostly because of the content.

I took an intro class for my major with 150 students, which included a substantial discussion component, and it was great. The professor sketched out theories (and acted a few out, which was entertaining); left details to the readings; and left most of the arcane debates to TA sections. I’m in a 40-person lecture this quarter that follows much the same model, and it works very well.

Then there’s this quarter’s 200-person lecture, which is unremarkable in just about every way, but with decently engaging content.

So there’s a lot of variation from lecture class to lecture class. My favorite class until this quarter was my Winter Quarter Classics seminar, which only had 12 students. Now my favorite by far is a 40-person lecture.

One of the nice things about spending oodles of money on faculty is having good professors regardless of class format.

6

As a grad student, I had plenty of courses in Econ, finance, and accounting that were sizable (40+ students). That didn’t take away from the quality of the lecture one bit. Maybe you could hide easier if called on, but that was about it :))

7

Also be aware that looknig at the catalog can be misleading - every class has a cap, but many of them don’t actually get nearly as many people enrolled in them as the cap would allow.

8

My question was generated by using the actual class scheduler, which showed the actual enrollment not just class cap.

Thanks for the couple of you who came in to describe your experience.

9

We strongly considered LACs for this reason, too, so I totally understand your concern.

More data: My first year kid, who will probably be a humanities/arts major with a lot of social science classes, and who placed out of core math and gen ed foreign language and is spacing her other core requirements out over two years, has had:

Fall quarter: non-major science core lecture with 150 students which she enjoyed a lot; ~18 students in HUM seminar; 11 students in a wonderful elective that was mostly 4th and 3rd year students.

Winter quarter: non-major science core lecture with 40+ students and much smaller labs with TA; ~18 students in HUM seminar; 48 students in an elective intro lecture - discussion section with TA at 24; 10 students in a wonderful elective that is virtually all 4th and 3rd year students.

She aims to have a mix of seminars and lectures. If the class is a lecture, it doesn’t really matter (to her) if it’s 50 students or 150; it’s important that the professor who lectures is engaging and the material is interesting and relevant.

It may not be the same as at some LACs, but there are certainly some compensating benefits to being at a university (e.g., extracurricular breadth), and she’s liked or loved all of her classes so far.

I imagine the experience could be very different with a different major, or different choices of classes. So, yeah, it totally makes sense to think about what classes you would be taking, based on your expected major and your interests, and then look up enrollment in those classes in the course catalog.