<p>I am choosing between UChicago and a liberal arts college whose major attractive quality is small classes and closeness with professors. When I visited chicago, I heard of classes with 350+ people, when do classes at chicago become small and do students in their first two years feel close to their professors?</p>
<p>I sat in on a core class and a chem class… the core had three freshman taught by a AMAZING professor and a TA, and the chem class had 5 people taught by a professor. Classes at the LAC I visited were bigger.</p>
<p>The class sizes are small from day one. There are some classes that are big (ahem… intro to econ), but even then, they are capped at about 150 and are not nearly as big as those at a state university (I’ve taken some at 500 students for intro physics). I get the impression that you get a lot of one-on-one time, even in the big classes, from TAs and office hours.</p>
<p>I would not make your choice based on this, as Chicago is about on par with the LACs as far as class size goes.</p>
<p>I’ve been casting about trying to figure out what class at Chicago could be 350+ and haven’t come up with anything. The biggest class my D has had is about 50. Most are more like 20. She’s had no trouble getting to know her professors and no trouble getting their help with summer jobs, BA thesis topics, and just chatting. A number of her professors don’t have to teach in the College (the undergrads) but choose to because they like it.</p>
<p>I was told general chemistry has 350 people in it.</p>
<p>I sat in on a Systems Neuroscience class and it had about 50 people (2 profs teaching). The core Classics I sat in on had about 15. It varies department to department. If you’re interested go to timeschedules.uchicago.edu, click on a department and you can see how many people are currently enrolled in a particular class/what the max. enrollment is. In Gen Chem 113, which I think a lot of people take, there are 226 enrolled, but the largest lab/discussion section is 22.</p>
<p>There are currently 226 people in the main Gen Chem course, and another 35 in Honors Gen Chem. Also, 46 people in a first-year Introduction to Gen Chem course that does not satisfy pre-med/science major requirements, but does satisfy the Core physical science requirement.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Chicago Time Schedules](<a href=“http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu/view.php?dept=CHEM&term=81]University”>University of Chicago Time Schedules)</p>
<p>Regular Organic Chemistry has 143 people, and I think no other course in the whole department this quarter has more than 30, with most having fewer than 20. Labs and discussion sections have a maximum of 22 people.</p>
<p>As you probably know, everyone who thinks he or she may want to be a doctor, a bio major, or a chemistry major is going to take either Comprehensive Gen Chem or Honors Gen Chem. For that reason, no matter where you go, General Chemistry is going to be a largish course for that institution.</p>
<p>In brief: HUMA, SOSC, math, humanities and language courses, yes. Science and civ lecture courses, no, or not nearly as much.</p>
<p>I am taking two hardcore science classes right now. One has 8 students, and I am the only student in the other one. My HUM class has 7 students. (My previous HUM class only had 4 students.) UChicago has a much better teacher-student ratio than many, many of the LACs.</p>
<p>Also, as JHS said but I want to reiterate, although your Gen Chem and perhaps introductory biology classes will be large, you’re in discussion section/lab almost as often as you’re in lecture. The lectures will often have more than 100 people in them, but you discussion section and lab section will have the same group of less than 20 students, with amazing access to both the graduate student that leads then section, and your professor during office hours.</p>