Can a current student or a parent in the know speak to class size for freshman classes? I’m also interested in whether professors or grad students teach at Vandy.
Our S19 is applying to mostly liberal arts colleges but has found a lot to like about Vanderbilt online. It looks like the school really takes care of its freshmen and the campus is lively. He’s really drawn to small class size though. As a freshman, he’s guessing he would take a math class (probably either Multivariable or Linear Algebra depending on how he’s placed), a physics course, some sort of philosophy or history class and the freshman seminar. Would the math class be taught by a full professor? Would the physics class be large and then broken out for study groups and led by grad students? Would there be any philosophy/history classes open to freshmen that would be on the small side?
https://acad.app.vanderbilt.edu/more/SearchClasses!input.action lets you see the current enrollment and maximum capacity of every class. You’ll want to go into the advanced options and check closed classes and set the term back to Fall 2018, along with any other narrowing down you might do.
The course schedule also shows who the class is taught by.
@allyphoe Fabulous! Thanks!!
Well, just as I suspected. Physics lecture can be up to 120 kids. Econ up to 200. Lectures with professors. Physics labs broken out in group of 15 which is good and taught by asst professors. Econ not broken out at all. I guess that’s a place where the differences could really be. Only small-ish lectures for Physics and Econ for the LACs on his list. Math looks good at Vandy. 30 kids, taught by professors.
All good info. 
@homerdog : Be careful about math instruction at research universities. Though intermediates and upper divisions, you are correct, would be taught by full professors.
Also, don’t worry about size so much as pedagogy. Some schools with decent sized lecture halls may used flipped/reverse classrooms and other methods that are supposedly hip, effective, and make the experience feel more active and intimate. Meanwhile, smaller sections may be more traditional, and still have an instructor talking at you with little engagement or active learning. I would visit to actually check his courses of interest out (ideally sit in on at least a well-known decent instructor), you may be pleasantly surprised by many research universities in terms of how they run large and medium sized intro and intermediate courses.
@bernie12 what do you mean be careful about math instruction at research universities? What do you consider upper level?
Point taken about larger classes and pedagogy. Can anyone speak to what an entry level Econ or Physics class looks like at Vanderbilt?
@homerdog : Oh, the courses your son is considering, as I suggested are fine. Usually they (intermediate-so your lin. alg., diff. eq, and Multi) and frosh honors math sequences (which pretty much exist at all elite private schools now) have tenured or tenure track instructors, or lecturers (usually lecturers, who are non-tenure track are the strongest instructors, more reminiscent of what is found at LACs, and several of the elite private schools have a decent influence from lecture track faculty, especially in STEM and social sciences like economics, which are STEM like), but the introductory calculus sequences (and below for schools that offer something below a basic college calculus course) are often run by graduate students. They are small, but the teaching is usually not standardized. There will usually be variation across the tons of sections of calc. 1/2.
My daughter is a 1st year at Vandy - Peabody School dual major 2ndary Ed/Chemistry. Her Calculus classes have had 45-50 students and her Chemistry and Physics about 150 … all taught by full professors with the Labs (about 15 students per lab) taught Upper Grad TA and mandatory break out discussion meetings (also about 15 students) also taught by TAs… these are basically followup to the lecture with homework checks and great opportunity to ask more questions (you register for the Discussion as part of the overall class).
Her Developmental Psych has about 28, English/Writing class this semester has15 and her two education classes (GenEd and SPED) have had about 100. Certain classes at Vandy (like Gen Chem) are large because so many interdisciplinaries need them (ie anyone pre-med, engineering, almost every STEM major/research, etc)
I can tell you that my daughter has had no problems getting to meet with her Vanderbilt professors outside their posted office hours (which conflicted with other class times) All she had to do was ask! It is an extremely supportive environment. She also has met with her discussion TAs outside of class to get extra help.
The classes get smaller as you get more ingrained in your actual major. Hope this helps!