Class sizes, vibes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>I am a junior in high school and I am starting to research colleges. I live in Los Angeles and I am a very good student, #2 in my class. I have visited UCLA (liked it), and on a recent trip to NY I visited NYU (liked it) and Columbia (hated it).</p>

<p>Schools I am thinking of applying to are UCLA, UCB, Stanford and NYU.</p>

<p>Here is my thing: At most of the schools I have visited as well as on their websites, they have touted "small, discussion based classes" with "low student to faculty ratios". To me though this is a major turn-off. I am a very independent worker and learner and I much prefer lecture style classes. I don't want to get to know my teacher personally, and I want to be able to skip class when I'm not feeling up to it and not be questioned about it. My ideal dream class is a relaxed environment, one where I can just listen to my professor, study by reading the textbook, and have a personal responsibility to keep up, not having some professor or TA hold my hand with busy work.</p>

<p>May seem weird to a lot of people but this is just a more relaxing lifestyle to me. So can anyone offer any insight into how this situation is at UCLA or the other schools I listed? This issue is pretty important to me.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Edit: Should have mentioned, I want to go to law school so I'll likely either do pre-law or English.</p>

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<p>If you’re going into Math/Sciences then that will by the lifestyle you will live most of the time. Though, by no means am I implying the content and course load will at all make you relaxed. </p>

<p>If you want to go into the arts or english or something like that most discussions take attendance because learning is a “group effort” with those subjects whereas for math/science discussions are there to help YOU learn, so attendance is optional.</p>

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<p>It also depends on what professor or class you have. One of my accounting professor requires group project while the other only have exams to calculate your grade.</p>

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<p>Good luck getting your letters of rec for law school</p>