<p>I know that this topic has been touched on but I still have questions. I'd ideally like to have smallish classes and good deal of contact with professors and classmates. I've been accepted to a few "small libral arts school" and I really like this one aspect about them (although not too much more). One of the reasons I'm really attracted to USC is that I've heard it has this to a degree. I'm just wondering how much. Also, it is almost entirely lecture or are there a decent amount of seminars a student can choose to take. Also, what percentage of classes are under 20 or 30 students? And how is the distibution between lecture, discusion and lecture/discusion. By the way, I'll probably be double majoring in poli sci and marshall.</p>
<p>I can't really give a percentage, but in general, the higher up in class you get, the smaller the classes get. The only classes that are really big are general education classes (with the exception of Cat V classes), and hard sciences. 30 is really the average cap for most classes, and has been the cap for all my classes so far (again with the exception of science and GE). Your writing class will be capped at 15 I believe.</p>
<p>All lectures with a discussion are broken down into groups of about 10-20 students on average and faciliate a good environment for the students and TA to get to know each other and answer each other's questions. Contact with the professor is easy, and in some cases mandatory. Obviously, you should be somewhat proactive, but if the professor knows you want to make yourself known to him/her, he/she will ensure you get to know each other. I got to know all but one of my professors last semester, and this semester I'm almost there!</p>
<p>As a freshman, you'll get the chance to take some interesting sounding Freshman Seminars. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/FSEM/%5B/url%5D">http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/general_studies/FSEM/</a> </p>
<p>Those never fit into my schedule, but my friend took one about comic books and there was one about music, so I wish I had the time to take one.</p>
<p>ITP classes are capped at 20 students. Most of my classes have been around 40 students, but they're probably different from yours because I'm doing engineering. All professors are different, but I have never had a professor that isn't easy to contact. In fact, almost all professors answer emails within a couple hours (again, this is engineering; it varies). Getting to know classmates is easy to do, but you have to make the effort. It doesn't happen by itself.</p>
<p>The Freshman Seminars are great classes to meet faculty on a personal basis. Also, the Cat V GE classes are small too that your professor should know you on a first name basis. WRIT-140 doesn't count; it's taught by grad students.</p>
<p>It's usually just GEs and introductory courses that will be large lecture style courses with TAs.</p>
<p>Supposedly the hard sciences class size is going to drop in the next few semesters - those are the only real non-GE classes that are still huge.</p>
<p>I think all but a handful of my professors know my name and would recognize me, even still a few semesters later. The opportunities for student-prof contact are huge and you just need to take advantage of it.</p>