Class sizes???

<p>How big are the classes??? The introductory courses as a freshman??? Are there so many people that UNC has to place students on online classes????</p>

<p>I think the average is probably around 30-35 students but you will definitely have to take some introductory stuff in classes with 150+ people. That’s true at any large university though.</p>

<p>You will not have to take classes online unless you want to. And it is definitely not just for intro stuff. One of my friends is a junior and she is taking an online class on Russian literature because she wants to.</p>

<p>There will be some big intro classes, but there are caps on some of the important ones. Foreign language, English, and Math classes all have low caps if I remember correctly.</p>

<p>Science, business, and economics are the biggest intro classes, with 200+ students. English, Math, and foreign language classes are capped at around 25. </p>

<p>No one ever has to take an online class.</p>

<p>

2-9: 276 (10.6%)
10-19: 879 (33.7%)
20-29: 666 (25.5%)
30-39: 369 (14.1%)
40-49: 144 (5.52%)
50-99: 136 (5.21%)
100+: 138 (5.29%)</p>

<p>1-20: 44.3%
1-30: 69.8%
1-40: 83.9%</p>

<p>Many of the larger classes (40+ students) are broken down into discussion sections.</p>

<p>2-9: 128 (13.6%)
10-19: 520 (55.3%)
20-29: 255 (27.1%)
30-39: 31 (3.30%)</p>

<p>Of course, this varies depending on your major. Classics courses are very small at most universities, and biology courses are fairly large at most universities.</p>

<p>If I’m not mistaken Foreign language and English classes are capped at 18 and math classes at 55 though most are not that large.</p>

<p>That is definitely not the case about foreign language classes here. I’m an English major and have yet to see a class with less than 25 people. Most are closer to 30-5 and the required ones like Shakespeare are usually huge lecture classes with around 100 or so. My Arabic class has close to 40 people in it I think.</p>

<p>Just because they are broken down into recitation section doesn’t mean much. TA’s are VERY hit or miss. Even the good ones don’t get a chance to do much when you only meet like once a week anyway. </p>

<p>I’m not trying to slag off my University here but let’s try to keep the information truthful. Again, this is the case at EVERY major public school, I’m sure at bigger ones like UCLA, UT or UMICH it’s even worse.</p>

<p>I dunno, everyone’s experience is different. My biggest class so far has been probably around 40 people, though next semester I’m signing up for a East Asian Art course with 100 people. My languages have typically been around 20-30 people. I’d say 10-25 has been the norm for all my classes. That includes taking classes like Anth 101 etc.</p>

<p>IB - those stats are nice! thanks.
I have a question: if I go in with a bunch of credits (somewhere between 37 and 45) that cover at least a little bit in history, literature/english, math, science (lab & no), polisci and econ, do you think I would avoid almost all of the bigger classes (40+)??? I plan on majoring in philosophy and maybe economics (macro/micro out of the way, and I would imagine intro phil classes aren’t huge?)</p>

<p>I think it would depend on your major. My S entered UNC with 43 AP credits and was in many upper division classes by the second semester of freshman year. I asked him about a year ago how many “big” classes he had been in, meaning over 150 students and his answer was three including one he wanted to take “the History of Rock and Roll” which is now taught by a different professor.</p>

<p>TTwhite, look for yourself:</p>

<p>[UNC</a> Chapel Hill Directory of Classes](<a href=“http://www.unc.edu/clsched/]UNC”>http://www.unc.edu/clsched/)</p>

<p>:)</p>