<p>" At many UC's the classes are enormous, and it can be really difficult to get in personal contact with a professor if you have questions or concerns.</p>
<p>-Anonymous (copied from a review of the UC's)</p>
<p>Is there any validity to this claim and to what extent? </p>
<p>Do the UC's give ample personal attention to students or are they more like factories turning out students by the barrel?</p>
<p>Any feedback would be greatly appreciated on this thread.</p>
<p>-Thanks, Tim</p>
<p>"ample personal attention"? Are you kidding ;) Just visit one, or talk to any current student.</p>
<p>They're large U's devoted to research and educating 20,000+ undergrads at the same time. You're fooling yourself if you think that is an environment conducive to close personal contact, or, as you somewhat prosaically put it, "ample personal attention". Unless you define ample == 0</p>
<p>But they're not factories, either (Mario Savio to the contrary). They're staffed by people who care about students and want to help. When you have to deliver something to 20,000 people you can't institutionalize personal attention. So what matters isn't the U, its you. (I like that pun, BTW). If you go to office hours, if you make appointments to take advantage of the deans/counselors/advisors, you'll get plenty of personal attention. But at any large U, including the UCs, you have to make the 1st move to get this help. If you do nothing more than show up for class and accept what's delivered TO you, yeah, its a pretty impersonal place. But if you take a few steps to change things, you will have a pleasant and rewarding educational experience.</p>
<p>You can get lots of attention, but you have to seek it out.</p>