<p>I heard that the econ and gov departments are suffering from overcrowded classes. Has there been any effort at hiring more faculty?</p>
<p>Here was an article from earlier this week on this topic:
<a href="http://thedartmouth.com/2007/10/04/news/econ/%5B/url%5D">http://thedartmouth.com/2007/10/04/news/econ/</a></p>
<p>Side note, I ran into someone from Harvard yesterday at a party who was also thinking about econ., and he said that his intro class had about 1,000 students (his words). My Econ 1 class has about 40 people. The reason this situation happened in this intermediate course was that Dartmouth caps class registration numbers and rarely uses large lecture hall formats so the rooms may be too small.</p>
<p>As to the faculty issue, the college has hired more faculty in these departments, but it is still an ongoing process.</p>
<p>Econ is a growing, and extremely popular major at many colleges. For example, UCLA doesn't cap classes (large lecture halls abound) but they do cap the major. Thus, one has to "apply" to the major at the end of Soph year.</p>
<p>that is encouraging to hear</p>
<p>The only thing that bothers me about Dartmouth's method of immediately dealing with the overcrowding is that an econ major can get through 3 years of school without getting into a required basic econ course. I thought econ was a discipline that did build to some extent on basic concepts? DD assures me that this is not a problem in history, the basic courses beef up the student's writing and critical thinking skills for the upper level classes, but there is no required building of a knowledge base.</p>
<p>I'm not too sure that taking required courses for econ are any different than prereqs for math or science, or some languages (smaller departments don't offer classes every Qtr). Prospective majors in those subjects need to start taking classes Frosh year, or early Soph year. However, that issue occurs in every small college or LAC and it just not sn iddur at Dartmouth. I once read an article from a prof at a highly selective NE LAC who mused: "perhaps we should stop accepting econ majors..."; of course, he was a classics prof with low enrollment. :)</p>
<p>Exactly Bluebayou, some kids are seniors and still lack one required frosh course. I thought econ was significantly mathematics based, and that approach didn't work.</p>
<p>Class sizes have been shrinking in the Government department. When I was a freshman, intro classes were capped at 100. Now, they're often capped at 50 or 25. </p>
<p>It isn't very hard to get into the major Govt intro courses. Most people get in on their second try at least. And if you patrol Bannerstudent, you can sign up as soon as someone drops during the first week of class.</p>
<p>I know the Govt department has been hiring a lot of new faculty. And some of these new profs are proving to be very popular among students.</p>
<p>Govt 10 is the only course required for the major and it is offered practically every term. I'm taking it now and there are students of all years in my class, including freshmen. There are 33 students enrolled now and the cap is at 35.</p>
<p>That is encouraging, Jen.</p>
<p>There is so much rhetoric being tossed around in the alumni/admin fracas, that it is hard to know what is hype, and what is true. I do share one opinion with the alumni - Dartmouth is better off emphasizing its strengths - undergraduate teaching and experience - than trying to be a small poor imitation of Harvard.</p>
<p>I'm glad to hear the prof hirings are working.</p>
<p>My S is double majoring in econ and govt. and so far has had no problem getting into any classes (intro. or otherwise) he has needed or wanted. He didn't take AP Econ in hs so he took the introductory macro and micro classes at Dartmouth as a frosh. He has also not complained about class size.</p>
<p>PS His advisor did try to talk him out of taking the macro. and micro right away during the first 2 quarters of freshman year. Said they were hard classes to start out college with. S ignored the advice, though.</p>