<p>How is the classroom environment at College? </p>
<p>i.e are discussions encouraged & are students actively engaged in the classroom? is there an apparent intellectual atmosphere, learning for the sake of learning atmosphere, or are people out to get the best grade possible to get into grad school, the first prestigious job etc?</p>
<p>any insight sincerely appreciated.</p>
<p>I see that there are several views but no replies, so I thought I would clarify the question. I meant the intellectual atmosphere at the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn and not college in general. </p>
<p>From reading the Penn threads I get a pretty good feel for the Wharton kid, but am not able to get a read on the intellectual/personality of the kids at the College/SAS/CAS. It appears that SAS is less academically intense than HYPS and Columbia, but where does it stand in relation to the top 15 US NWR colleges? Is it at the bottom of the ivies?</p>
<p>Is there a ranking based on learning atmosphere or academic experience of the kids? </p>
<p>Hope I can get some feedback.</p>
<p>anyone? hope the current SAS students or students who have friends at the College would share their experience. </p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>there is a good helping of both - varies some by major and professor, as one would expect</p>
<p>there wouldn't necessarily be much of a discussion environment in a science lecture - but in a writing seminar, absolutely</p>
<p>It depends on the professor. Some here are great and make a large lecture very discussion based. Others just stand and lecture even if it's a small class. People here are looking to get good grades for their future. Why would you pay 50k a year and not think about doing a few things to ensure a good future after graduation? However, it's not like people are uber cutthroat or anything bad like that. Unless you need your hand held a lot like at some of those small LACs, Penn is fine. It's not like a state school where you're on your own but it's big enough that whatever you want to explore will be here.</p>
<p>I would say it depends where you are.</p>
<p>I have had lecture classes where there would actually be great discussions. The one I have in mind is Hist190 - intro to Africa. Another one I took that was like this was Hist 318 - Italian History.</p>
<p>I have had similar seminar classes. One of them had 3 students in it, myself included, and we always had great discussions. I have also had seminar classes where people were just competing for facetime.</p>
<p>Thus, it comes down to your courses and the professors. It is really hard to make any kind of sweeping generalization when there are so many courses, curricula and professors. But I would say that an engaging intellectual atmosphere is definitely out there to be found.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for sharing your insights. So it would be safe say broadly, that it depends...</p>
<p>Seminars are likely to have more discussion than lectures, but it is also possible to have lectures with engaging professors. Isn't there a Penn site where all the classes are ranked, could you post that link if it is available to outsiders? Or if it is not accessible unless you are a Penn student, can you tell me what info is provided by the students & is that generally a good indicator of the quality of the class?</p>
<p>Lastly, is there a typical class size for lectures and seminars? Is it true that Penn doesn't require a writing seminar in the first year, most other institutions make that a mandatory first semester requirement. </p>
<p>Thanks once again, really appreciate it.</p>
<p>the site is the penn course review, and is restricted to students only.</p>
<p>it's generally accurate - gives ratings of difficulty, course quality, and professor quality.</p>
<p>thank you tenebrousfire, can you please tell me what is the typical lecture and seminar class size? is the writing seminar not mandatory for first year students? are you a current student?</p>
<p>Critical</a> Writing @ The University of Pennsylvania
Writing</a> Requirement: Policies</p>
<p>Writing</a> Program and Requirement
In answer: encouraged NOT required for first year students.</p>
<p>typical lecture and seminar class size varies widely</p>
<p>the biggest lectures can have 400+ (like psych 1)</p>
<p>writing seminars usually have about 20?</p>
<p>and yes, i'm an engineering senior</p>
<p>Just to offer a little insight - I believe that most of us current student posters are in SEAS and Wharton (by coincidence, I guess), so the college isn't represented as well.</p>
<p>Thanks all. </p>
<p>It would be nice if some students from the college were on this board. Is it a good or bad sign that they don't frequent this board as much? :-(</p>
<p>Hopefully, ilovebagels will chime in. He's a 2008 graduate of the College who now has some plum job in India, and generally posts here while those of us in the Western Hemisphere are sound asleep. He does a good job extolling the virtues of the College.</p>
<p>phillysaser08 also contributed a lot of valuable info about being a science major in the college</p>
<p>but he's now at med school at a certain location in new haven, which is keeping him busy</p>
<p>
[quote]
he's now at med school at a certain location in new haven
[/quote]
Traitor! :p</p>
<p>clearly graduates from the college are doing quite well. (even if they choose to "settle" for the school at that "certain location" in New Haven) </p>
<p>I am convinced that the atmosphere at the college is great!</p>
<p>"are discussions encouraged & are students actively engaged in the classroom?"</p>
<p>Usually, yes. You will always have your share of students who never speak and those who speak a lot, but usually in intro-level classes. Smaller college classes tend to be very involved and there's a lot of interesting discussion.</p>
<p>"is there an apparent intellectual atmosphere, learning for the sake of learning atmosphere, or are people out to get the best grade possible to get into grad school, the first prestigious job etc?"</p>
<p>Depends on the class, I'd say. I'd say there's a decent intellectual atmosphere unless you're in a class that people are taking because it's a requirement for something. Then you run into cases where people aren't really passionate at all about the subject material. </p>
<p>In general though, college classes are a lot of fun. I tend to enjoy them a bit more than I do many Wharton classes.</p>
<p>even if the college isn't "intellectual" enough for your tastes, there's always philo</p>
<p>LOL ilovebagels needs to get in here, he's a 08 Penn graduate i believe, I may be wrong...</p>