<p>Are the classes impersonal?
Are your teachers unavailable?
Is it hard to be special?
Is it harder to make friends?
Do you hate entry level courses?</p>
<p>Are all the stereotypes about big schools true? And why have you chosen to go anyway, if it is true? Etc.</p>
<p>Are there real drawbacks to going to a big school?</p>
<p>This is a great question...I was kind of wondering the same thing. I recently picked a larger school (UAlbany) over the local SUNY, and I was feeling kind of apprehensive about the entry level courses, although I've heard they do a great job of tying everything in.</p>
<p>The answers to this question is going to vary greatly, not only from school to school, but also from department to department within each school.</p>
<p>The School of Management at BU does an excellent job of giving students individual attention as required. The larger, required classes (400+ students) are only partially lecture-based. The two-semester introductory sequence, for instance, involves eight hours a week--two hours of lecture, four hours of discussion and two hours of lab. The lectures involve everyone, but the discussions and labs are only around 40 students (discussions are taught by professors and labs are taught by TAs). All of your professors know your name and face by the end of the first week (they are given a sheet with your name and photo ahead of time). Classes are extremely interactive.</p>
<p>Classes outside of SMG vary, however. I'm tend not to want a lot of individual attention from professors; however, I've never heard anyone complain that they did not get the attention that the needed. Administration outside of SMG is also a bit beuracratic.</p>
<p>All-in-all, I wouldn't worry too much about it, but would do a bit of research.</p>
<p>I go to what is apparently the largest university in the country right now so I'm gonna go ahead and answer.
(this post is <em>ginormous</em> so I apologize)</p>
<p>Are the classes impersonal?
only one of my five classes is a lecture (art history) and honestly, I don't mind that it's impersonal, because the lectures are amazing and I'd rather just listen to him go on with his stories. the rest of my classes are from 15 to 30 people and the teachers all know my name and take attendence every day. (whoever said you could just ditch class all the time is a stinking liar.)</p>
<p>Are your teachers unavailable?
no. even in a giant even in a giant lecture, there will be office hours to talk with the professor, as well as a couple TAs on hand for additional help. some classes break into smaller sections, or can have smaller honors sections of the same class. it all depends.</p>
<p>Is it hard to be special?
...you could argue that it's easier to be 'special' at a big state university than a small private school where everyone is miles above average. here there's an honors college and it's its own community, and as an honors student you get preferential treatment with registering for classes and stuff. it's rad.</p>
<p>Is it harder to make friends?
not at all. some (okay, a lot) of people may be somewhat vacant, but you would be surprised. the only hard thing is keeping in contact with people, since there's a lot who you won't just run into every day, but it also means more variety.</p>
<p>Do you hate entry level courses?
some of the general requirements are the suck, not gonna lie, but AP can help you out with some of the more annoying ones. (let's hear it for not taking math or a lab science, ever.)
and do I dislike my freshman art classes, but that's because ALL of the art majors have to take the same group of core classes and don't specialize by major until sophomore year. so there's a lot of photography students in my drawing/color theory classes crying about how they can't draw. that sort of thing.
I imagine it would be different for other majors.</p>
<p>I went here because
1) it cost 1/10th of what it would cost to go to a fancy private school (read: not leaving college with a ton of debt)
2) the honors college
3) undergraduate education doesn't matter in the long run</p>
<p>^wow most of your professors take attendance....I've rarely had that in my classes.</p>
<p>I've been in alot of giant lectures for my science courses that range from 150-450 people, and I dont mind them that much I guess. Who cares if the professor never knows who you are? My smaller classes and labs range from 20-60 people and those sometimes have attendance taken or a daily assignment or quiz, and the professor/TA knows your name and hands back papers.</p>
<p>Professors always have office hours and an email to contact them if you need it, its easy to get ahold of them.</p>
<p>Yes, you can be special be joining a diverse range of clubs/classes that wouldn't be offered at a smaller school. </p>
<p>You make friends very quick, especially with those in the same major as you. And you see people you recognize on campus everyday. In my second year now, its rare to walk into a new class and not see at least a couple people you already know from housing/previous classes/clubs.</p>
<p>My introductory gen chem courses sucked (a year of the 500 people in a class thing), but they were bearable. And being at a big school gives you more opportunities for the general requirements, such as interesting humanities to take. Don't just take the general Psych 110 or whatever, find something cool to take that might only have 30 other people in the class.</p>
<p>I typed a very large response to this, and as I go to post it, the server decides it wants to update. Couldn't that have waited until like 3am EST? Anyway, I saved my post, so here it is.</p>
<p>I go to a school of 17,000 undergraduate students (in an engineering division of 2,000 or so undergrads).</p>
<p>Q: Are the classes impersonal?
A: The large classes can be impersonal. At my school, only the first- and sometime second-year general classes (I'm talking bio, gen chem, organic chem, etc) have enrollments of more than 100+. After that, you'll never be in a class of more than 40 students.</p>
<p>Q: Are your teachers unavailable?
A: While there are large classes, you'll generally find that professors in those classes will go out of their way to make themselves available to compensate. That said, professors (especially research professors and administrators who teach) often have a lot more things to do than time to do it. On the other hand, with big impersonal classes, not everybody is going to need or want one-on-one time with the instructor, so generally you'll get as much attention as you need, if you're willing to ask for it.</p>
<p>Q: Is it hard to be special?
A: I don't know what you mean by "special". If you mean you want to know every other student by name and hometown and vice-versa, then no, that's not gonna happen. However, if you want a distinguished college career with plenty of opportunities to take interesting classes, join organizations as varied as African dance clubs and club lax, and meet all kinds of friends, then, yes you can be special at a large school.</p>
<p>Q: Is it harder to make friends?
A: I'd say it's easier to make friends in a larger school since there are more people for you to become friends with. The majority of the time you're gonna become friends with people you share interests with and, most likely, you will meet people you share interests with in clubs you join, sports you play, and classes you take. With big schools, you have more opportunites to do so.</p>
<p>Q: Do you hate entry level courses?
A: I personally am neutral to entry-level classes. Most classes I take, I'm taking because I'm interested in the subject. However, the fact you have to learn so much in so many varied areas can make it a bit tough to make it though these entry-level classes unscathed.</p>
<p>Q: Are there real drawbacks to going to a big school?
A: Of course, everything has it's drawbacks. You should not go to big school if you do not thrive in a large environment, just like you should not to go small school if you do not thrive in a small environment.</p>
<p>@ UF:
1) So far, I haven't had a class with less than 100 students in it. Chem. 1 & 2, Calc. 1 & 2, Physics 1, & my 3 humanities classes were each 300 people in massive auditorium settings. Impersonal? Check!</p>
<p>2)With so many people in the classes, & only a set amount of office hours for the professors, you'd have to be fairly lucky to catch them for a decent amount of time. To make up for that, they spammed us with assistants, who either spoke horrible english, didn't really care for us, or a mixture of both. Unavailability? Check!</p>
<p>3)Special? What is this, grade school? Maybe "special"ly not given a damn about, sure.</p>
<p>4)Depends what kind of friends you want; theres plenty of people, so there's bound to find some soul you can befriend. Friends? Check!</p>
<p>5)Entry level courses are festering pools of horrid teaching, nonexistent curves, & kids that don't give a damn. They're taught by research professors that get simple problems wrong because they're too preoccupied with some obscure find, then expect you to master something with unreliable assistance & horrid teaching. Hate entry level courses? Check!</p>
<p>6) Drawbacks? Well, you might not see someone you met out of class again, its an adventure getting to class on peak hours, & you're pretty much ignored unless you're a graduating senior, athlete, or doing some rad research. Drawbacks? Check!</p>
<p>i'm going to a pretty big state university (university of minnesota :Twin Cities) so I guess it'll be like you all are describing. just make the most out of it, i guess.</p>
<p>I go to UC Davis, some of the classes I've taken are humongous 100+,200+ students in the lecture. However, we have sections usually, around 30 students each, which are taught by TAs. I have found it no trouble at all to know at least one the persons in charge of my grade pretty well (TA or Professor). It's very easy to make friends, you just have to take the initiative to do so. I think entry level courses are ok, I haven't had any trouble with them in the 2 quarters that I've been here. I don't know if there are any drawbacks to going to a big school since I can't really compare it to a small private school; we do, however, have tutors to help first year students and seminars on how to take notes/study/etc. I haven't actually gone to any, but I see people getting their essays proofread in there all the time.</p>
<p>I go to the University of NH. About 12,000 undergrads. Not huge, but certainly not small either
Some of the classes are a bit impersonal, but I haven't heard of any over 200, and usually those are science classes, so you'll have much smaller labs (20ish people). Freshmen are required to take a freshmen English class, and those are capped at 25 students for regular ones, and 20 for honors English classes. They're also starting a new requirement that all freshmen will have to take a seminar, and again, those are small classes. In my biggest class last semester (about 100 people), she broke us into groups of 8-10 people, and we sat with them, did assignments with them, etc. The professors definitely do what they can to make classes a little less intimidating. Last semester I actually only had that one big class. I had one with 12 people in it, one with 25, and one with closer to 40. Not bad. This semester I have two with about 50 in them, one with 30 or 40, and one with 23 (honors seminar). One of my professors this semester has made no effort to learn names, the two professors from my classes of 50 people have made a huge effort to learn names, and obviously my seminar professor knows all our names.</p>
<p>The professors are very available. They all have office hours, and if those don't work, they'll see you by appointment. A lot of the bigger classes have TA's, who also hold office hours, so you get double the amount of time to get help. You do need to make an effort to get help, but they are absolutely available. One of my professors has given us his cell phone number; if we have questions we just need to call him. And all are available by email.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what you're asking about if it's hard to be special. Yeah it's hard to be a teacher's pet, but if you make the effort to get to know your professors (go to their office hours), they'll get to know you.</p>
<p>I've really had no trouble making friends in classes. Some of my best friends have come from my bigger classes. It's easier to whisper in a big class. That being said, I have plenty of friends from my smaller classes. My smaller classes seem to have been very structured more often, with less breaks for profs to set up technological stuff, so less chit chat time.</p>
<p>I don't hate entry level courses, across the board. Obviously I've had classes that I've loved, and some that I've hated. Actually both that I've hated have been very small classes. One that I love now is a 50 person class. I loved my English class last semester. I don't hate classes because of the size, but because of the class itself.</p>
<p>I don't think the stereotypes of a big school are true. I love it here, and definitely feel like a person, not like someone lost in the middle of hugeness. There are a lot of communities within a bigger school. My dorm has an amazing sense of community. I'm in the honors program, which is very small, so I'm making a lot of friends within that. The honors program is actually working on making an even stronger community. I've just been accepted as a peer mentor for next year's honors program freshmen. I'll be sort of a connection for 4 or 5 new freshmen. I chose to come here because the price was right, the campus is beautiful, and everything about the school felt right. I was undecided about my major at the time and it has a huge amount of excellent options. For a state school it's excellent. It's a good distance from home, and the hockey team is good too, so I have something to do on the weekends. I have not yet regretted my choice.</p>
<p>I haven't found any huge drawbacks to going to this school. Yes there are professors I've had that don't know my name. But there are way too many positives to outweigh the negatives (to be honest that's the only "negative" I've found so far). I've just declared my major, and it's one that most small schools don't have, and it's an excellent program here. The resources at this school are amazing. I'm in the process of putting together my final paper for my honors seminar, and some of the books I needed were checked out of the school library already. I was able to go online and request them through the Boston Library Consortium. I'm now in the possession of books from libraries at UMass Medical School, and Brown. Everywhere I go I see someone that I know, which I never thought would happen at a school this big, but it does, all the time. Yes, it's a state school, an hour from my high school, so that does have a little bit to do with it, but this school isn't entirely comprised of my high school. I've had loads of opportunities to get to know people, and get involved. But at the same time, there are always people I don't know. Coming from a town about 1/3 the size of UNH, that feeling of having a little anonymity is even better than knowing a whole bunch of people</p>
<p>thank you for all your responses!</p>
<p>by the way, what i meant by "special" was this: (sorry i was not more concise)
Will you stand out to future employers etc. or will you just be one of many applicants from college X...
Is it easy or hard to not feel like a number...
Such things.</p>
<p>Is the U of Minnesota you are going to at the main campus? I go to a diff. Big Ten school of about 31,000 undergrads, so I'll take a stab at your question too :)</p>
<p>Are the classes impersonal?
Most of my classes are large lectures (100-400 people), but you have recitations and labs which are much, much smaller. The profs. are pretty impersonal in large lecture type classes, but you can get to know them if you try. The TAs will def. get to know you more, and it's pretty easy to get to know them. You'll have some smaller (normal size) classes too.</p>
<p>Are your teachers unavailable?
Nope. Even profs. have office hours! And you can e-mail them too. TAs are usually more flexible w/ hours, and there are also help/resource rooms you can go to.</p>
<p>Is it hard to be special?
Sometimes I think so, at least, in your early years. It's a wake up call because you're no longer the "smartest" person or whatever. But I don't really feel like a "number", and I know future employers will be impressed by the school I go to.</p>
<p>Is it harder to make friends?
One of the reasons I chose a large school was so I could keep meeting new people. At small schools, I do think it's easier to make friends because you see the same people over and over again in classes, but at large schools you really have to make an effort to keep seeing the same people. However, joining clubs REALLY helps because it's with a smaller group of people w/ similar interests to you. I've made almost all of my friends through clubs, and most of the people I know don't really make their friends through their classes.</p>
<p>Do you hate entry level courses?
Yes, I do. They just plain suck. They are weed-out courses, and their purpose is to make sure the kids who shouldn't be at the school (or in that major) are gone. But if you work hard, you have nothing to worry about. And it depends on your major.</p>
<p>For my experience at USC (so far):</p>
<p>Are the classes impersonal?
My engineering classes and writing class, no. Those are small classes and the instructors know everyone on first name basis. General ed classes though is a different story...</p>
<p>Are your teachers unavailable?
Most teachers are very good in keeping their office hours and will be willing to talk with you outside their office hours as well, usually by appt. The only teachers I've had problems with are my physics profs.</p>
<p>Is it hard to be special?
Uhhh, all I will say is I'm definitely going through the Freshman shock in terms of grades, academic rigor, and such. I'm hoping to have caught up by the end of this semester.</p>
<p>Is it harder to make friends?
Heck no! That's the advantage of such a huge school, there are so many people that you will fit in with easily and such.</p>
<p>Do you hate entry level courses?
Yes. Mainly cuz I'm an engineer and my weak point is writing, so I naturally hate writing-intensive general ed courses. Math is somewhat ok for me, just a lot of work. And physics, the profs here are terrible.</p>