Hi everyone,
I’m a junior who will be applying to schools in the fall. Although I’ve mostly narrowed down my list to medium and small sized schools (<14000), I’m starting to reconsider whether I should apply to large schools. I was initially attracted to both large public and private schools such as USC, Berkeley, UCLA, UVA, Michigan, etc. However, I took them off my list because I thought the size of the student body and the large class sizes would be overwhelming. Can anyone confirm or deny this? Thanks.
Yes, some classes are large. There may be opportunities to take classes as part of a group. Large schools rarely have everyone milling about. You will find friends in classes, campus activities, eating, etc. Attending a large school is quite similar to living n a neighborhood of a large city. It takes a bit of time to find your way around but you will settle into s schedule and routes.
I believe the largest classes at USC are around 200 students. That’s a lot smaller than you’ll find at the big, public flagship universities. Berkeley has a few classes where you’re in a lecture hall with 700 students.
I transferred from a school of 50K students to one with 3K students because I couldn’t handle the huge class sizes. The big school had freshman classes with 400-500 students, while at the smaller school my largest class was about 60 students. It made all the difference in the world for me. OTOH, plenty of students do fine at the larger schools.
“Overwhelming” is going to depend on the individual. My D attends a large university and during her first 2 years she typically had 1-2 large science lecture halls ( she reported 200 students) and 3 smaller classes ( about 30) each semester. She had an intro anthropology class with 100 students. The large science classes were taught as flipped classrooms- she was used to this from HS and enjoyed it. She also sat front and center and attended office hours. She was not overwhelmed…but again… others may be. It really depends on the student. It did take her some time to find her niche socially, but once she did she was ( and is) very happy.
We looked at a few schools that had class sizes of 14. She loved that, but ultimately chose a large school.
For me, if I’m just going to be sitting there listening to the professor talk, then why does it matter whether I’m sitting with 3 people or 300? Having large lecture sections has never had an impact on my grade; profs answer questions and explain more and repeat concepts regardless. Just sit near the front, for seeing-the-board and hearing-the-often-mumbling-professor reasons.
But that’s a personal choice. Visit a large school, when students are there, with an open mind – go to see what it’s like, not to confirm that you hate it.
My son went from a HS with a graduating class of 75 to a huge public. He did not have any issues transitioning What you may not realize is that there are multiple small communities within the large universities too. There are honors groups, interest groups, social groups, residential groups, language groups etc.
Even the large lectures have small discussion sections. They rarely exceed 25 people. Most classes are smaller especially as you progress through your major.
You will have a lot more contact with TAs who are grad students than profs for those big classes. Quality of TAs can vary a lot – some will be foreign students whose English language skills aren’t that strong, but some will be very good instructors who still remember their own early struggles with the material.
I think knowing your own personality is helpful. There is more competition at a big school for attention from instructors, and research opportunities. You may have to look farther to find other students taking the same courses for help when you are stuck (I was the only person I knew socially taking intro Chen at my university – when I got stuck on the homework at night or on a weekend there was no one to ask). If you are someone to scrap for opportunities, then you could do fine at a larger college.
The large schools can feel overwhelming to some and exhilarating to others. If the schools don’t feel like the right fit for you, then eliminate them from your list.
@drwprz Not sure where you live or how close you might be to a large Uni (doesn’t matter the school) but at most if not all U’s prospective students can go sit in on a lecture. See if you can get to one that has a large lecture course going on. Sit in on it, maybe two if you can. Talk to some of the students afterward. That’s the only way to know if it’s going to “feel” ok to you.
All prospective students should do this anyway. See if you can spend a day at the closest big state school or large private U campus. Talk to students. Get a feel. You’re going to spend 4 years and you/your parents are going to spend 10’s of thousands of $$. Do your due diligence, make sure the school type you go after is a good fit. And have fun!
Cal has some intro classes that are so large (800-1000) students (CS61A comes to mind) that students in these classes are actively discouraged to not go to lecture and to watch it online. With that being said, there are always discussion sections that have small enough numbers to get the attention you need. The problem is not the large class size in my opinion.
Students will often complain that they don’t get enough attention, but how many of them see the professor during office hours? How many of them seek the TA’s or GSI’s office hours? How many schedule personal appointments outside of those hours? How many of them pursue free tutoring in the libraries? That is the real problem.
With so many students on campus, it can be overwhelming. But more often than not, you will find your small niche and surround yourself with friends and peers that mean a lot to you. You will never run out of people to meet.
^^^FWIW at both of my kid’s colleges (a LAC and a mid-sized university) it was not uncommon to seek out a professor during office hours or at a mutually agreed up on time. Certainly they didn’t do so for every class/every professor - but when it was deemed helpful it was nice that the professors were readily available.
But again, it comes down to different strokes for different folks. I went to a large college and it worked really well for me. There is no right answer – just what is right for the individual.
The size of classes depends not only on the university size but also on the major or the topic of the class. Writing classes usually have fewer than 30 students. Language classes also are smaller, especially if you take some languages that get few students these days (e.g. German on the West Coast).
I agree with those who say that it involves personal learning styles or preferences. Some people want to be in a setting where the professors know your name. Others do not care about that.
OP did you get a chance to visit different size schools? There is no right or wrong answer here.