<p>My daughter applied and was accepted to Clemson as an agriculture major. She was also accepted to University of Florida. She got no money from either school, but we are instate for UF, so it would be far less expensive (with instate scholarships and our Florida Prepaid Tuition, it would be practically free). UF is also higher ranked in US News, both in general and in agriculture (It is #6 in the US in ag, ranked behind only schools like Cornell), so based upon these factors, our decision seems obvious. </p>
<p>HOWEVER, my daughter has some learning disabilities, including ADD, which make me fear sending her to a huge state university. UF has close to 50,000 students, so it's larger than the town we live in. Many of their freshman classes have upwards of 300 students. On paper, Clemson looks smaller. However, it is hard to tell because, for example, US News talks about how many classes with over 50 people a school has. Over 50 people could be 51 or could be 500. Smaller state universities in Florida (such as Florida Gulf Coast) still have the massive lecture classes, though they do not have as overwhelming a campus.</p>
<p>It would be worth it to us to spend the extra money if Clemson has a truly smaller college environment in which my daughter would be more likely to be successful. But does it? I'd be interested in opinions from those who attend Clemson. Does it feel huge and overwhelming? Do you feel like a number? Do your professors take a personal interest in your success, or is it sink or swim, as I suspect it would be at UF? Any input appreciated.</p>
<p>I’m not going to comment on whether it’s worth spending the extra money for Clemson because it isn’t my money and honestly I don’t think I can give a good answer (being a college student and still getting help from my parents) but I can give you at least an assessment of my class sizes and classroom experience.</p>
<p>I am in civil engineering which has about 467 students (sophomore - senior year, freshman are in general engineering before they declare an engineering major) and looking through the numbers it looks to be the 3rd largest major behind biology and mechanical engineering. Most of my classes freshman year were about 40-60 students. There was 2 classes in general chemistry and physics that were about 100-120 students but that’s probably the largest class I have ever had. I think the largest lecture hall on campus is 600 people but that’s only used for general education classes and Human Sexual Behavior (most popular class on campus, surprised? haha). After you get past your freshman year, I haven’t been in a class of more than 60-70 people (40 seems to be the median number). Since I’m in engineering classes with not a lot of classroom discussion, classes tend to be larger. I have taken 2 english classes though and those have been small, about 15-25 people. So yes, since Clemson is a pretty big school, you are going to have a lot bigger classes than you did in high school and it can be overwhelming at first but overall I have thought that they have done a very good job of managing class sizes compared to other public schools. Coming into college, I heard horrors stories about 500 people classes and classes taught by TA but I haven’t had that experience. In fact the only classes I have taught by a TA was one with an older student (about 50-60) coming back to college (getting their PhD) who had actual experience in my industry/field and an introductory english class (which honestly doesn’t need a professor). My professors attempt to learn our name and I definitely don’t feel like a number. They encourage you to come to their office hours and to interact with them outside of class. My geotechnical engineering professor last semester told me that he has a son at Georgia Tech and he has to chase down his professor between class changes just to get 2-3 minutes of help and he definitely doesn’t want to be like that.</p>
<p>Hopefully that helps a little with your questions. Let me know if you want me to expand on anything!</p>
<p>OP- don’t know where it is and you may have already seen it, but there was another thread not too long ago about schools with good support for learning disabilities and one poster was quite impressed with Clemson. Maybe search for that thread since that may be a consideration that trumps cost to some extent.</p>
<p>Okay, so it sounds like there are definitely pretty big classes at Clemson too. Do you feel like you get to know a group of students within your major, or is it just really huge?</p>
<p>Well yes I think you sort of expect that when a school has 16,000 undergraduates. Also, I think my classes tend to be bigger since there are a lot of civil engineers and the department has no choice but to have bigger classes. </p>
<p>I definitely have had a class with most people in my major and year and I know a bunch of civil engineering majors in general through outside activities like ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) so even though I am in the 3rd largest major on campus, it’s not like it’s so big you don’t know anybody. Usually every semester there’s a bunch of people I have multiple classes with. </p>
<p>Okay, thanks. I’m comparing with U of Florida, which has 50,000 students, so 16,000 seems TINY to me. I went to U of Miami, which was closer in numbers to Clemson, and there were, to my knowledge, no classes with more than 150 people, and very, very few of those (I think I had 3 in 4 years). So 16,000 students can be arranged into larger or smaller classes depending on the motivation of those doing the arranging. </p>
<p>There’s probably only 2-3 classrooms in Clemson that could hold 200+ people but those are for really popular classes that have a lot of demand so they just stick a section in that classroom. (To be quite honest, once you get past 100 people in a class, you might as well have 500 - it has about the same feeling) Once you get past freshman year and into more major intensive classes, it’s pretty rare that you’ll get stuck in a class of more than 100 people.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what UF said also (about only the early classes being huge). As a person who frequently speaks to large groups, I agree with you that the quality of attention sort of falls off if more than 75 people are in the room and it doesn’t matter if there are 100 or 500. You either have the speaker/professor’s eyeball, or you don’t. Good info to mull over. All things being equal, she’ll be going to the instate school (She has already purchased and is wearing her Gator hoodie, but if I said I’d PAY for Clemson, she might feel differently), but we’ll think about it as long as possible because we’re obsessive like that.</p>
<p>Fair enough, the key really is sitting in the front of the room. A lot of students tend to sit in the back of the classrooms and go on facebook/twitter/youtube and don’t pay attention. Sitting in the front row gives you less reason to be distracted (well since the professor is right in front of you) and you’ll pay more attention. There are always seats at the front haha</p>
<p>Another thing with Miami is that they are a private school and they probably have more money and facilities to facilitate smaller class sizes. Clemson, even though we have 19,000 students should probably have less students if we wanted to maintain even smaller class sizes but we’ve been taking in more students so we can get tuition money (since the state barely supports us now)</p>
<p>Thanks. All good information. Yes, you absolutely get what you pay for with private school (meaning tiny class size) but Miami is even more expensive than Clemson out-of-state AND it doesn’t have her major. Actually, with the exception of Cornell, all the good ag schools are big state u’s. Clemson is among the smallest.</p>