How big are the CS classes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
1

<p>Although my decision haven't come out, I would like to know about this so that I could choose which university to go later more easily.
Can anyone tell me where I could find the size of each class at UIUC? Or can someone give me a general impression about how big are CS classes there? How do you feel about the big classes? Do they make learning CS harder for you because of their size?</p>

2

<p>I’m a junior in Stats/CS and this is my first semester at the U of I.</p>

<p>The two CS classes I’m in are like this:</p>

<p>Lecture hall with ~300 students 3 days per week. This obviously isn’t the best place to get help/ask questions although the professors are happy to answer questions. </p>

<p>Discussion section with ~25 students 1 day per week. Here a TA goes over the weeks lecture material and is a good place for questions/answers. Some TA’s aren’t the best at teaching but if you get one of them you can always attend a different discussion section. There are about 10 different sections.</p>

<p>Lab section with ~25 students 1 day per week. Again this is ran by the TA’s and is a good place to get 1 on 1 help with your coursework.</p>

<p>Then obviously there are office hours but these can be tough because sometimes there will be 30 students waiting in a queue to get help from 1 TA. Sometimes I’ve waited 2.5 hours to get help on an assignment. </p>

<p>Most CS classes at UIUC use a class discussion board called Piazza as well which makes it really easy to ask questions, the course staff is very quick to answer here.</p>

<p>In general UIUC engineering is very much so a fend for yourself type atmosphere but if you’re persistent and advocate for yourself it’s not hard to get help.</p>

3

<p>The good news is that the CS building has the nicest of the big lecture halls on campus. You’re not crammed into tiny seats in a room that doesn’t have enough air conditioning to keep up at full seating capacity in Siebel.</p>

4

<p>@cgress1
Can I ask which classes are you taking? I’m wondering whether the class size would be smaller in more advanced CS courses.</p>