<p>Hi,</p>
<p>My S was admitted, he's also looking at some small LACs where classes are mostly discussion-based. have these questions about tulane:
- are most classes lecture vs. discussion-based?
- for lecture-based classes, is there typically a followup with a TA that's more discussion-based?
- typical class size?</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at Tulane. This past semester he had a class with 4 people in it, and they met in the Professors office and a class with 45 people in it (Spanish). His other classes had around 20-30 people. He is a Political/Science/Philosophy major and most of his classes were discussion rather than lecture. Depending on major that might be different, especially for science, math majors. He didn’t have any TA’s for any of his classes this semester. </p>
<p>I think this is one of the things that makes Tulane truly different from schools that otherwise might seem pretty similar. Tulane’s emphasis on undergraduate teaching and research is very high, while still maintaining strong graduate programs and research in many fields. So it is unlike many of the HYP schools, where the profs have little time for undergrads because they are so busy with their large grad student groups, writing papers, writing grant proposals, consulting, etc. Yet it offers much higher level research opportunities in all areas, not just the sciences, than your typical LAC while having professors that spend a lot of time with the undergrads. In fact, Tulane is one of 60 members of the American Association of Universities, reserved for the top research universities in North America. But it depends on undergrads a lot to get involved in much of that research. In fact, they just started a reviewed journal that features undergrad research. <a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/120914_student-research-journal-debuts-at-tulane.cfm”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/120914_student-research-journal-debuts-at-tulane.cfm</a></p>
<p>Now I know you asked about class size, but I thought that emphasis on undergraduates at Tulane was important to note, and how Tulane strikes a fairly unique balance between emphasis on undergraduates and high level research. But getting to class size, it really depends on the subject and the level of the class. Of course some subjects like Calculus are going to be straight lecture type courses, with breakout groups headed by TA’s for problem solving and more individualized help. Many math and science classes will be like this.</p>
<p>For the social science and humanities classes, class sizes can range from 4-40 or so, a few might be bigger (I think someone told me an intro Econ class can be about 75 people), and typical is probably 15-20. Tulane doesn’t have any giant lecture halls, so I think the biggest a class can get is something like 200, and there is only one room that holds that many. So as you can imagine, only classes like intro psych, some biology classes perhaps, and a couple of others reach those kinds of numbers. I don’t know if those kinds of classes require smaller group breakouts.</p>
<p>Due to the mild climate during the school year, a lot of classes move outside. Perusing photo sites that have Tulane pics will usually reveal a number of pics of this. I can only assume these are heavily discussion based. <a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/032614_spring-class.cfm?RenderForPrint=1”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/032614_spring-class.cfm?RenderForPrint=1</a></p>
<p>But apparently even the hard sciences get involved: <a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/92512_chalk.cfm”>http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/92512_chalk.cfm</a></p>
<p>Of course further looking would reveal dozens, if not hundreds more.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I am not saying that overall Tulane will have as many classes that are as small as and as strictly discussion oriented as many LAC’s with entering classes of 200-400, as opposed to Tulane’s 1500-1600. I think a student just has to balance how much they value that environment with the different opportunities a school like Tulane offers.</p>
<p>thanks to both of you!</p>
<p>@quietdesperation If you are so inclined you can look directly at the Tulane Class Schedule and each course says what Type it is. You can also see how many seats are in each class. While the system is not the best, all the info is there for the looking. This way you can look at the courses that your S would be most interested in. My D is a freshman. She had Intro to Psych with 150 students and Spanish with 19. She was very happy in each course. Certainly the upper level courses have less students.</p>
<p><a href=“Tulane University Schedule of Classes”>Tulane University Schedule of Classes;