<p>"Intermediate level classes at many Ivies (Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and Penn) have over 100 students. "</p>
<p>Significantly depends on the field. In these schools a significant number of students are gunning for financial careers, and would be taking economics and finance classes even though they dont have a major in them </p>
<p>Anyways this does not really matter. As I have previously stated, people overrate the importance of a college’s contribution to your education. Most of the work you do in college is independent. When taking introductory classes like organic chemistry I never bothered even sitting for a lecture.</p>
<p>There is nothing really wrong with the lecture format per se. however, I personally think classes which encourage discussions even in the sciences are way better than the lecture format. I always enjoyed my small science classes because I got to interact and even challenge what the professor taught me. Also professor’s can assign more work to you and personally grade them instead of being done by a TA. Feedback from a professor is kind of better than that from a TA.</p>
<p>sefago, the same can be said of class size at most universities. Intermediate level classes in the 3 or 4 most popular majors (Biology, Economics, Political Science and Psychology) will typically be large at virtually all universities, public or private. Intermediate-level classes in most other majors will typically be smaller, even at public universities. My point is that:</p>
<p>1) The value of small classes is often overstated in CC
2) It is a myth that private universities offer exclusively small classes past the introduction level
3) The size of classes at many public elites is overstated on CC</p>
<p>" sefago, the same can be said of class size at most universities. Intermediate level classes in the 3 or 4 most popular majors (Biology, Economics, Political Science and Psychology) will typically be large at virtually all universities, public or private. Intermediate-level classes in most other majors will typically be smaller, even at public universities. My point is that:</p>
<p>1) The value of small classes is often overstated in CC
2) It is a myth that private universities offer small classes past the introduction level
3) The size of classes at many public elites is overstated on CC "</p>
<p>True, I agree. Nevertheless, when I judge a school based on academic quality as opposed to nebulous concepts such as “prestige” I always consider class size especially in the humanities and social sciences. These classes are heavily dependent on small class sizes. However not all of them do. The intermediate lecture classes that you have listed are examples of classes which do not benefit from small class sizes. I am sure the people who organize the schedules for these colleges are aware about this. Most professors have a say in private colleges on the ideal number of students they want in their class and how it would have an impact on their teaching- at least when I was in college this was what i noticed. </p>
<p>I really dont know the statistics of how large the classes are for public schools are but i would wager that due to their size they would be unable to offer the smaller classes of privates.</p>
<p>Moreover, there is a difference between large and LARGE.An equivalent class in columbia which could have 80 students might have twice that at a public</p>