<p>just a couple more questions for current duke students
firstly, i visited bucknell today and one nice thing was that it is small so they have small, personalized classes. At duke, is it too large for this individualistic feel - are you just a number at duke? Are professors accessible/how large are class sizes? Do undergraduate students get to participate in any research oppurtunities? Is the BME program overly competitive/cutthroat? thanks
ben</p>
<p>I don't feel like a number at all... You are the one choosing your classes. If you like large lecture classes, you can take those. If you prefer seminars, you can sign up for them. All large classes, however, have small seminar "sections" where you digest information with a TA. You are required to take at least two seminars during your first year taught by professors. Pardon my ignorance, but what is Bucknell?</p>
<p>I agree with incollege88. I don't feel like a number like it seems UNC and NC State students sometimes are. Our school is much smaller population-wise. I like to mix my schedule up with lectures and seminars. There are lots of seminars that you could take where you'll always have open discussions and interact with other students and teachers. Professors always have office hours where you could talk with them one-on-one if you're in large lectures. Take advantage of those. I wish I did more. They're very accessible</p>
<p>oh, incollege, bucknell is a small college in eastern pennsylvania, a town called lewisburg. It's a very nice college, fairly difficult admittance(average sat this year about 1350) and well known for engineering. It is about 37,000 a year although it is cheaper for me than duke with merit aide, but my parents told me just to pick the one i like better, either way we'll be okay with finances, so i'm just trying to decide between the two. Duke just sort of intimidates me, everyone going is so intelligent it seems the competition would become unbearable, but i've heard from a lot of people that out of schools of similar caliber duke has more laid back students than most, so i'm hoping this is true.</p>
<p>Don't be intimidated! Seriously, if you got into Duke you are obviously incredibly smart yourself. Very few people here are competitive with each other--it's actually a lot more collaborative than my high school was. People are really laid back and helpful. There is no reason for you to be afraid, do you really want to wimp out of what could be the best experience of your life??</p>
<p>two more questions, one much more serious than the other. I heard that many courses, particularly in your sophomore/freshman year our taught by TAs as opposed to profressors. For any current duke students: have you found this to be a big problem, i have nothing to gauge that on of whether or not that is a huge issue. Secondly, if you are an undergraduate student, how difficult is it to get tickets to a basketball game? Alright thanks for your time
ben</p>
<p>Benndaman---I don't know where you heard that TAs teach the courses but that is not true. The only time I've had TAs was for the lab sections, where frankly they do a better job than professors would. My two TAs that I had so far were undergraduate juniors who just took the course a year or two ago so it's fresh on their minds. They're also easier to talk with since they're students just like you. I never had a recitation class but I think they lead those too. I've never had a TA teach any lectures or seminars though.</p>
<p>For the basketball game question--go here <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=27025%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=27025</a>
I could talk more about it if you'd like.</p>
<p>Yea...I've never had a class taught by a TA and I've never heard of anyone else who's experienced that either. Whoever told you that doesn't really know what they're talking about.</p>
<p>perhpas i simply got the wrong impression. I was on blue devil days and was told in beginning classes you would have anywhere from one to two hundred students, which would be broken down into smaller sections instructed by TAs. At least that's how i understood it.</p>
<p>Those smaller sections are called recitations. They're in addition to the normal lecture courses and help you get a better understanding of the subject. TAs usually run those.</p>
<p>exactly - basically, large classes have lectures and discussion sections/recitations.</p>
<p>in lecture = professor lectures</p>
<p>"section" or "recitation" as we call them = led by TA's. you go over lectures, concepts, take quizzes, etc. my public policy TA was a junior and my art history TA is a grad student.</p>
<p>it's really to make sure you learn the concepts - if you want to get to know the professor, go ahead and talk to him/her after class. Whenever they discuss something particularly engaging, I'll go up and discuss with the professor a bit (even in classes of over 100).</p>
<p>and the collaborative nature here strikes me as very unique - it strikes me as less cutthroat than my high school.</p>
<p>so it sounds like the recitations are actually a nice way of learning your material more indepthly, if nothing else. How easily accessible would you say profressors are, in general. Thanks for all of your guys' time.</p>
<p>most professors emphasize their office hours, meeting before/after class, and many are more than willing to arrange meetings outside of those times.</p>
<p>i met with my pubpol prof during office hours last semester just to discuss possible career parths and i was in a class of 100. i also regularly drop by my turkish professor's office before class or whenever just to ask questions, or stay after class discussing random topics (it's a class of 4. yes, only 4). basically, there's similar accessibility to professors regardless of class size - the only difference (usually) is how much you'll one on one discuss/ask questions during a large lecture (though i honestly, i can't speak for the large econ classes yet). the reality is, most students never take advantage of office hours - as long as the professor is sociable, they'll be glad to have someone actually stop by.</p>
<p>i heard from a tour guide that there are Math classes taught by TA because it's Math Dept's policy limiting class size to 20 or something like that. (they just cant have that many professors)</p>
<p>yet, i dont think that(TA math classes or sections or whatnot) is that bad.</p>
<p>My recitations that I had this year in my college classes were semi-optional, I wouldn't worry about it</p>
<p>How come you guys burn the benches on the West campus, but paint the ones on the East campus?
Do you just like them better in the East?</p>
<p>The bonfire after the UNC game (and the other tenting game) when we win is held out in the main quad on West Campus. It is a lot easier to just use the benches there than to drag benches a mile and a half from East. A lot of the benches on West are painted as well. A lot of the painted benches went in flames on February 9th after we beat UNC.</p>