<p>Hey everyone,
Can the current students or alumni please answer this question of mine. Is it tough to adapt to the huge student body? I love UF and I really want to go there but a few people have discouraged me saying it's way too big, you dont get any personal attention, (I will be premed) the premed advisors don't help -- they dont even know you (?), etc. Is this really true? And can classes get as big as 800 students??
Do you current students regret your decision to go to UF or do u wish you had chosen a smaller school?
Thanks on advance!</p>
<p>what?!?! 800 students in one class? definitely not. According to their website, the biggest class being taught with 1 teacher in one classroom was 654 students and this was for Theatre Appreciation. However, I think that most classes are significantly less. Also, it depends on what you take. For freshman classes such as freshman comp, you can easily have 100+ students in a lecture hall. However, for more specific major classes, they are much smaller.</p>
<p>I actually went on a tour of UF this weekend and they answered most of these questions! There is something like 1:25 faculty to student ratio, so while there may be some large classes, there are plenty of professors to go around. Also, the professors at the school are required to have a certain amount of office hours based on how many hours/students they teach (more hours/students teaching = more offices hours). During these office hours students are free to come and ask for additional assistance in the class or really any question they wish. The tour guides were saying this benefit is under-utilized and many times the kids don’t know about it, so the professors just sit in there office doing crosswords lol.</p>
<p>With this being said though, I don’t think the large population of the school would be a problem. As UMcane stated above many of the classes aren’t too big, and that paired with professor’s office hours should provide plenty of attention to you should you need help in a class.</p>
<p>but you guys are forgeting about those online classes that have literally 1000 to 2000, and you never even get to be in the same room as the professor. and I have never actually seen or heard of a prof who didn’t hold only two office hours a week. for my micro class, I try to go to his office hours to make the class a little more personal, but the number of people who also go there is so large, considering the class has over 2000, that now he holds his office hours in a large classroom, and I might as well not go at all. I’ve never even seen my stats prof. </p>
<p>yes the classes do get to that smaller 30 to 40 range, but only in maybe your junior year. After a year going through a medley of classes, my smallest typical “freshman” class had atleast 60 people. But the language classes do get pretty small, russian 2 is only 10 per class, and I know in spanish, the some classes are about 15.</p>
<p>but about what the op was concerned with, I think no matter where you go, unless it is a cc, then your classes the first 2 years are going to be pretty big. I know some of my friends at FAU are taking the same classes as me, and while they may not be online, they still have like 200 people or more. classes may be a tiny little bit smaller at some of the lesser known/popular schools, like UWF or UNF. but it is not so bad that it cannot be overcome, there are a lot of study resources, like the TA’s, tutoring lab in broward, and smokin notes or Tutoringzone if you are really struggling with it.</p>
<p>to rlynch93, I think it is great you went on a tour, but remember that on the tours, whether at UF or anywhere else, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Those tour guides are in essence trying to sell a product (a UF education) so just like any salesman, they are going to fudge the facts a little bit, and emphasize the good while ignoring the bad.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input!</p>
<p>Glasswright- are online classes mandatory or can we take chose the option of a classroom setting? Or are some classes only offered online (if so, can u please tell me which ones)?</p>
<p>How big do the typical premed science classes get… Bio, chem, calc, etc?</p>
<p>well, I am not a premed or science major, so I haven’t taken any of those classes, but basicaly any class that holds assembly exams, where there exam is administered to everyone in that class at the same time, but in various rooms on campus, is either online or the class is huge. so, that would probably include all of the premed classes, since I have seen those classes have assembly exams. but I couldn’t tell you exactly how big those classes are. I wanna guess maybe 300 per prof? but don’t quote me on that, I could be entirely wrong.</p>
<p>the way online classes work os: the prof gives the lecture in a semi large class that could hold 50 to 100. this is recorded, and put on sakai/elearning. then if you didn’t go to the live class, you watch it online. you can go to the live one, but they will only ask for questions every once in a while, and they won’t let questions slow up the whole lecture. it’s not that online classes are mandatory, it’s just that those classes are usually only offered as online, so there is really no option to take it any other way.
I can’t tell you how many are online, there are too many to count. but I can confirm all beginning tracking business classes are in this format, so if you are going into business, you might as well go to a cc. as I mentioned stats is one, and also some sections of the chemistry’s and calc’s, but their online format is a little different, I don’t think there is a live lecture they can opt to go to. but there are probably many more that I just don’t know about since they are not in my major.</p>
<p>another perspective here:</p>
<p>the online classes have generous tutoring available for free. while professors for these classes hold office hours, its preferred that students attend the TA hours. As someone close to this, i would highly recommend it. TAs are class specific, and work directly under the professor, and are available about 8 hours a day for at least the econ classes. the other classes don’t have quite as much availability, but they also have people available for several hours a day every day to help students. large online classes are not daunting, and have the very real advantage of letting you rewatch parts of lectures that you got distracted on or didn’t understand the first time through. for the easier ones, you can even speed them up. and i would disagree with glasswright on another point about professor availability. yeah, their office is a little packed during their hours, but thats not how you get to know them. If you’re genuinely interested in getting to know them and want to know more about the subject outside of the class, careers, or something else, you should email them and set up a time where you can talk with them that isn’t their office hours. if you only want to go to office hours to have a relationship with someone who knows the content of the class, and who can help you, you’re much better off going to TA hours.</p>
<p>that mostly had to do with business classes. calc classes are usually pretty large. my current class is probably 30-40 people, but it feels like 20. it isn’t an assembly though. assembly calc classes are more common and have 100-150 people, but meet with a TA in a class of about 30 once a week to review content. these classes are also taught by grad students, who aren’t as great of resources as professors, but they’re usually very friendly and know what they’re talking about.</p>
<p>bio, chem, and all those general ed classes are all going to be large. period.</p>
<p>and i think its funny that you expect advisors to know your name. not that theres anything wrong with that, i know a lot of people knew their high school advisors well. i’ve never heard of anyone knowing their general advisors well at UF though. I can see it happening when you get close to graduation, because some departments advisors are actual professors and they’re great to talk to, but its not something you can count on happening. but this isn’t detrimental; i’ve been to an advisor once, and it was a waste of my time.</p>
<p>on the other hand, i’ve been to the career advising center a few times, and you do have the opportunity to meet and get to know a single advisor who you can go to when you need help figuring out what you want to do and stuff like that.</p>
<p>i think OPs most important question is whether or not students regret having gone to a school as big as UF, and wish they’d gone to a smaller school. i think the best way i can answer that is to say they i’ve NEVER heard of someone complain about the size of the school. Many buildings are as big as high schools, and the campus is large. Eventually you will only very rarely interact with departments outside of your own, and its extremely easy to get involved with your department if you really want to.</p>
<p>imagine UF not as a single school with 35000 undergrad students, but as 20-30+ little schools all built right next to each other. this is essentially what a college campus us, where each department has its own set of faculty who only deal with students in their department. honestly, it should feel less crowded than high school.</p>
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<p>Just avgs. from my classes.</p>
<p>Bio 1/2 - 120-150 per section
Gen chem - about the same as bio
Orgo - 100-150 per section
Calc 1 - 150-200
Calc 2 - 30-40</p>
<p>So the business classes are ridiculously large basically?</p>
<p>you could say that, yes.</p>
<p>it doesn’t make it harder though. i would say it does the opposite.</p>
<p>Not saying I am going to do this at all but I’m just curious haha. How are tests administered to these classes of 150 people? Can’t people cheat because there are so many kids in the class and only 1 professor?</p>
<p>There may only be 1 professor, but there are 149 other people in the class. In a competitive field it only makes sense to have someone whose cheating expelled. Because after all, that person cheating could be the one who takes your spot in graduate school, or takes the job that you wanted.</p>
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<p>150 - that can be done in class</p>
<p>For classes larger than that, such as physics and calc 1. You have night exams. They spread you all over campus.</p>
<p>Asmaj-- Oh! your class averages arent that bad. I had heard 800-1,500 haha but about 200 sounds okay. ive heard the largest class at U Miami is 200 too.</p>
<p>in regards to cheating: college is not like high school at all. your career can be put in jeopardy if you’re caught cheating. everyone is aware of this. additionally, when you’re paying $600 to take a class, you better damn well learn your stuff. most people tend to have that attitude, and, at least at UF, are smart enough to know that cheating is only going to hurt you in the long run.</p>
<p>i’ve never seen someone cheat in any of my exams. i’ve proctored exams and also haven’t even suspected anyone of cheating.</p>
<p>also, in large classes, theres usually 2 proctors. the professor only checks up on rooms to make sure there aren’t any issues. he doesn’t usually proctor himself.</p>
<p>Yeah, I would never risk cheating. I would prefer to fail. The consequences are too great, if you do get caught cheating.</p>