<p>How many students are in each classroom? usually??</p>
<p>I heard that there are about 500 ppl in Biology class?!??!</p>
<p>is this true???</p>
<p>it completely depends. intro classes, which require less personal attention and are more lecture-based, can have up to 1,000 (psych 101, right?). however, the more advanced your classes get, the more specialized your curriculum gets and that results in lower class sizes.</p>
<p>omg…1000ppl…that’s a lot…although it’s a private school…not public school…</p>
<p>how many ppl are in the smallest class??usually</p>
<p>You can check on the Cornell website, I’m pretty sure.</p>
<p>your freshman writing seminar is like 15-20 people, my major is tiny so my classes are usually 20-40 people, my intro anthropology class is around 100 people, and psych is around 1300 people. i think an intro bio class could feasibly have 500 people. but the numbers cut way down as you get more advanced.</p>
<p>so there is no “usual” number</p>
<p>My Chinese discussion had as few as 10-12 people…but my Psych 101 lecture has 1200. but as you get into higher-level classes, class size decreases.</p>
<p>I know a lot of upper level arts and sciences classes like languages have classes as small as 5 ppl. A number of people also have independent study which is bascially 1-3 students and a prof for a whole semester.</p>
<p>Let’s get honest here.</p>
<p>Freshmen and sophomore year: hundreds of other students in your typical classes
Junior and senior year: dozens of other students in your typical classes</p>
<p>That’s what it’s like for most folks who go to other major universities as well. If you want high-school-sized classes, you need to attend a small liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Wow…that’s a lot…
Do all Ivy League colleges have Freshman and Soph. classes consisting of 100s??!)</p>
<p>or is Cornell the only one…@?!</p>
<p>They all do. Even Brown.</p>
<p>The question is how many of your classes will be 100s.</p>
<p>But the real question is, why does it matter?
Do you somehow absorb the material from the lecture better when only 10 other people are listening as opposed to 90 other people?</p>
<p>^ By getting a greater opportunity to interact?</p>
<p>^ I agree. You can learn just as much from listening to lectures at any school, but its the interaction and discussions which is most important. I dont think it would be a fun learning experience for anyone to just sit there and listen to lectures for four years without the professor even actually knowing you since the class is so large.</p>
<p>^ If you go to office hours, you can get one-on-one interaction with your prof whenever you need help or just want to get to know him/her better. Also, large lectures are broken up into discussion sections. I don’t mind large lectures at all…the material is the same as it would be in a smaller class, and all of my profs are very engaging.</p>
<p>And for those interested in science, research and lab opportunities? How will they be affected by large size (here I am asking as someone who really doesn’t know the answer)</p>
<p>even if the lecture is 1000 people, your section for the class is still capped at around 15-20.</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman and the classes I’m in weren’t too big.</p>
<p>Math multivariable calc - about 30 people
Physics E&M - about 120-150
Writing seminar - 18
Laser and Photonics - ~60 - 100</p>
<p>You will get plenty of chances to interact with your professors and TAs.</p>
<p>Pretty much all math/science classes are broken up into discussions.
Discussions are for exactly that, discussions. It’s still mostly about the coursework though. You aren’t going to hold up the rest of your 15 person discussion (even at a small LAC) to ask something absolutely irrelevant.
If you have other questions, both the professors and the TAs all have office hours.</p>
<p>In many cases I have found my TAs (who lead my discussions) to be more helpful than the professor (despite what small LACs would have you believe).
There are a significant amount of professors everywhere that have no knack for teaching and would rather not do it. And they have the seniority to do exactly that.
TAs however are required to teach you, and often are better teachers (still remember being your age and still remember what it’s like to be frustrated) and fresher teachers (willing to try new styles, methods, activities).</p>
<p>Welcome to life as underclassmen at a major university. Dealing with large classes is something you’ll just have to do. A lot. Thank heavens it doesn’t last forever. Just the longest couple of years of your life. ;)</p>
<p>For me:
Chem Lecture- 300-400 (I’ve not been to a lecture since August though, so it doesn’t bother me)
Chem Lab- 20
Bio Lecture- 250-300
Bio Lab- 20
Language Lecture- 50ish (only once a week, mainly only for all sections to take tests)
Language Section- 12 (4 times a week, where all learning takes place)
FWS- 15</p>
<p>So yes, your large intro lectures will have tons of people. Does it really matter whether it’s 50 or 1000? I personally don’t think so. If you want to answer the few questions the professor asks, sit in the front row. Some people are appalled at sitting in huge lectures, and I never figured out why.</p>