<p>What are some colleges with small class size, informal and heavily discussion-based classes, and where speaking and writing is emphasized? (similar to Colorado College and Macalester)</p>
<p>I would think that most colleges fit this description. The most extreme example is St. John's College in Annapolis/Santa Fe.</p>
<p>My best friend from high school attends a liberal arts college where the largest class she can think of has 50 students. I attend a medium-sized university where the largest class I can think of has about 150 students, but these 150 student classes are the extreme intro classes and the class sizes typically break down to discussion classes under 20 students very quickly.</p>
<p>I would suggest two things in finding discussion-based classes: 1) look at class sizes for the courses offered (this information is not readily available all the time in a college's course catalog, but see what you can do), and 2) if you have a chance to visit schools, sit in on a discussion class and see how much the students want to participate. That one class visit will have its problems too, as you could end up with a bad class on a bad day that doesn't represent the school all that well.</p>
<p>St. Mary's College Of Maryland</p>
<p>it sounds like you're talking about LACs as opposed to larger U's</p>
<p>sorry, what I meant is colleges with classes that are not only small in size (which is typical of all LACs), but students tend to be highly interested in raising their voices and getting involved in discussions</p>
<p>It depends on the professor. It's like asking in what cities parents tend to interact more with their children.</p>
<p>Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Marlboro, Hampshire</p>
<p>Reed, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Amherst, Wellesley</p>
<p>Check out Hamiton's web site. It sounds like their entire raison d'etre is to teach people how to speak and to write, mostly in discussion classes. I would think most LAC's would be mainly about discussion based classes.</p>
<p>Bard has a reputation for small, discussion-based classes with very engaged students.</p>
<p>I created an account just to reply to this thread. Even though it is several years old, hopefully it is still getting some views.</p>
<p>The best discussion based classes I know of are at school like St. John’s and Shimer College in Chicago. At these schools every class is taught this way and the pedagogy is pervasive in the institution. They are very unlike other discussion classes where the professor asks a series of questions and students raise their hands to answer. </p>
<p>In my experience at Shimer, which I could go on and on about, the classes were driven by the students, it was non-hierarchical, and intense.</p>
<p>Knox College in Illinois is one of those schools where everyone is incredibly active and interested in almost every class and many extra curriculars, it might be worth looking into. Also, as long as you’re looking at Macalester you should look at Carleton.</p>
<p>Nice to know Shimergrad but the OP has been gone for 5 years now…</p>