<p>How many students are in a large college class, in your opinion? In a "small" one? I mean, I know that in college 30 kids in a class isn't as large as it seems to a high-schooler. What are your opinions?
I recently heard about a 1000-student Justice class at Harvard with 50 sections...Crazy! The freshman class is like 1600 :)</p>
<p>large class? 50+
small class? 15 or lower
average: 16-49 :)</p>
<p>Ok thanks. I was thinking it was impossible to have classes of 15 or less in college!</p>
<p>it depends largely on the college, many smaller LACs gloat about their 9:1 student-teacher ratio and their average class size being ~12...</p>
<p>depends on the school and the major, really. Students who major in sociology or psychology at Arizona State would probably have a different opinion than those who major in Chemistry at Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>It's not impossible, but chances are you won't see much of it in your first or even second year at the university unless you have freshman seminars or special sections (or you're eligible to take special upper div classes early on). </p>
<p>At UCSC, I would consider it more like this:</p>
<p>Large class: 100+ (most intros or gen eds)
Small class: 20< (most special, upper div or limited classes)
Average: early on, 50+; later, 20-40 or less</p>
<p>But it really varies between schools and majors.</p>
<p>I tend to think of a class size in relation to its style. In a lecture course, a small lecture might be around 30, whereas a big one has several hundred. In a discussion course, 30 is big (maybe too big in some cases) and fewer than 10 students is small.</p>
<p>as mentioned, class size depends a lot on your major, how popular it is, and the style of the class. 30 people is insane for a studio class, while it makes for a tiny lecture. I'm an art student, so all of my classes have less than 15 people (even less at the upper division level), while journalism and business students get to sit through giant lectures until junior year. sweet.</p>
<p>At a mid-sized public university:
Large class: 100-150
Small class: 15-10
Avarage: 50-80</p>
<p>I just finished the first semester of my sophomore year at Olin College. All of my classes this past semester had 15 or fewer students. </p>
<p>So yes, it depends a lot on where you go, what your major is, and what classes you take.</p>
<p>yep, it all depends on the class. my general bio lecture had definitely 300 students, while my spanish/writing/global sections easily had less than 20 kids in it.</p>
<p>I took Psychology 100B at WashU this summer and there were about 45 people in the class - I sat in the front and asked at least 4 questions/day and even made jokes with the professor.</p>