I’m coming from a very small school where my graduating class is about 50. I knew I wanted a bigger school and also a city. I visited UW Madison and I fell in love but I am just worried about the class sizes. Coming from class sizes that range from 2-15 kids, I’m nervous I won’t succeed academically or I’ll just be spending all my time working.
Can someone tell me how they adapted coming from a small school? Was it okay?
Go to every class. Sit in front, go to discussion. You’ll be fine.
If your stats are good I would recommend that you try to enroll in their honors program.
My kid is a UW alum. The intro classes will generally be large lectures – over 100 students, but those classes also have mandatory discussion section every week which is usually capped at 25 students. Intermediate and advanced classes are typically smaller (often about 40 students), and sometimes much smaller – my kid had seminars in his major which were capped at 18.
Generally, any college student would do well to do the reading, be prepared for class, review notes after class, go to office hours. The faculty at UW are often brilliant, and create an amazing academic smorgasbord for an engaged student.
Honors at UW is a wonderful opportunity but is not stat-based admissions. Every student admitted to UW College of Letters & Science is invited to apply for Honors – the idea is, every admitted student is capable of doing Honors work, but not every student wants to do it. There are no special Honors dorms or other means to create a “school within a school” at UW. Instead, a student admitted into the Honors program can take Honors classes, which can include discussion sections with the lead faculty of a large lecture, or a small Honors seminar with a prof. A student can do as much, or as little, Honors work as they choose, either meeting the breadth and depth requirements in coursework to graduate with “Honors in the Liberal Arts” or they can just take those specific Honors classes which interest them.
My kid, and his friends were loath to actually graduate UW – campus life, classes, State St., Camp Randall, the Terrace – it was all amazing.
Excellent post above- # 3. Great description of the Honors Program. OP- don’t worry. Attitude is half the game- go in wanting to succeed and liking the place. Even the top stats student from the largest, toughest HS is likely to be intimidated at first or discover they aren’t master of the world. College is a whole new experience. You will be ready to handle challenges and be with so many who feel just like you. Independence and not handholding is a key ingredient at UW. It looks like you want to expand your world and can do so at UW. Large schools are made up of many smaller neighborhoods, you will fit into yours.
One advantage of a very large university is that there is something for everyone. Whether it’s making friends in your LLC or the honors program or some club or other, it’s probably pretty easy to find your “crowd”. Large uni’s are not for everyone but you can get a sense for whether it works for you by visiting the place - which you did. You might also talk to alums from your school who have attended large flagships to see what they say about their experience and transition. Anecdotally, most we’ve met who struggle with college have difficulty with the workload and expectations more than the actual size of the place. Those who are well prepared tend to do fine, regardless of where they end up.
Friends at other schools may not be helpful because campus culture varies so much. Remember a large lecture is a passive event. Discussions and labs are a reasonable size for participation. You get a huge variety of electives and depth in majors not found at small schools. Since you loved the school I’m sure the size of the campus and numbers of people will be fine for you. No matter where you go to school being new means an adjustment phase. Do not worry.
I’m a freshman at UW this year and I had the same concerns. Yeah, everyone’s going to have those one or two classes where it’s a couple hundred kids in a lecture hall, and I’m no exception. However, a lot of classes with lectures (especially math) will also have discussion sections on the two days of the week with less than 20 kids. Even as a freshman, I have a class with 18 kids and 2 discussion sections with 20 kids to go along with my big lecture hall classes. Honestly, lecture halls can be an adjustment, but TAs and professors all have office hours and are very accessible if you have questions. I have a buddy from Northern WI who came from the exact same background as you and he’s thriving.