<p>I've heard that the GE's have a lot of students, but the upper division classes don't. How many classes are taught by TA's? Will you be in a lot of small classes your freshman year and how small?</p>
<p>Also, specifically in engineering, how accessible are the professors?</p>
<p>the size of classes your freshman year depends on the classes you take. most classes have around 15-20 or less students (at least for me)... i'm a freshman and i've had some classes with 4-5 people </p>
<p>but yes, most GE classes have 150-200 people. which isn't as bad as it sounds. keep in mind it is this way at almost every college, no matter where you go. All of these huge lecture classes are broken down into small 15-20 people discussion classes where you just make sure everyone gets and reviews what was said in lectures and you have a chance to ask questions and talk; and these are usually (or always?) taught by the the TAs</p>
<p>And not all GE's are large, some GE's that are smaller are CAT V (arts and letters) and the Writing classes. As well as new courses that have no popular reputation and bad courses (but you wont try to get those lol). Some GE's are capped at 50, others at 250..it all depends</p>
<p>Look at the schedule of classes for next year on their website. It tells you exactly how many students are allowed in each class.</p>
<p>The Engineering professors are really good at meeting with students, at least in the department I'm in. All professors are required to have a few office hours a week, so you can always meet with them then. Most professors will also be willing to meet with you if you email them and setup an appointment.</p>
<p>TA's do not teach classes at USC. The only exception I've ever seen was my 2nd semester Latin class. It was taught by a TA, but he was actually really good.</p>
<p>TA's pretty much lead discussions/labs and help with grading. The only issue I've ever had in regards to TA's is I had one Bio class where one of our TA's spoke almost no English. Luckily the Lab had 2 TA's and the other TA was fluent.</p>