<p>I’m interested in International Relations at American. I’m wondering about class sizes. What is the largest - are some of them lecture style? Also, are all classes taught by a professor or are some taught by a TA? I prefer small discussion based classes. Thanks.</p>
<p>The vast majority of classes at American are small. Only one or two general education classes require lecture halls (and not even all sections of those classes), and the largest one on campus only seats 300. In the School of International Service, there is a 1-credit “intro” class you take with about 200 people, but it’s mostly listening to alumni talk about potential careers and such (it’s pass/fail). Other than that, even most intro classes cap at about 40. Almost all upper-level classes are small, many seminar-style with only about 15 students. No classes (other than science labs, to my knowledge) are taught by TA’s. For one freshman-level course, I did have a Doctoral candidate, but that’s a FAR cry from what you would consider a TA. If you’re in the Honors Program, classes are even smaller. From my personal experience, I’ve never had class in a large lecture hall (with the exception of the 1-credit pass/fail intro course above), and even with general education classes the largest had about 40 students. Hope that answers the question.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m not a student at AU but I was there for the Preview Day on july 30th and thought I might share some info I learned. I remember hearing that the average class size is 26 and that the student:faculty ratio is 1:13. </p>
<p>Also, when I was in the presentation for the school of public affairs we were sitting in a room that sat maybe 200-300 people and they said that it was one of the largest rooms they had. Someone asked a question about class sizes and the students up there said most of their classes were even smaller than 26 people. The professors said a lot of their classes were smaller than that too and one of them claimed to know all the students in her classes by name. Overall I got a good feeling about the class sizes.</p>
<p>As for the TA’s I remember they made a point of saying that all classes were taught by professors and not TA’s. Hope this helps!</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Intro classes are mostly lecture style, but all the classes after 100-level are seminar based (discussion) classes. Some intro classes, such as college writing and honors seminars are discussion based despite their low level. </p></li>
<li><p>The largest class I’ve ever had was Introduction to Comparative Politics, it was 75 people. However, there were other sections that were smaller (under 30) people if you learn better that way. So while there are large classes at AU, you don’t get pushed into them by any means. </p></li>
<li><p>All classes are taught by a professor (only school in DC that does that). I’ve only seen one class that had a TA, it was that Comparative Politics class and the TA was a Doctoral Candidate. He was there to hold nighttime review sessions before papers and tests because the professor himself admitted that he was intimidating to some people and provided a TA for people who couldn’t bring themselves to come in for office hours. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Hope that answers your question.</p>