UF Student Taking Questions

<p>Hi, I am a freshman and I'm doing an English/Journalism double major with a minor in Religion. I'd be happy to answer any questions for any incoming freshman, if you have any.</p>

<p>S who is oos has been admitted to the honors program. He will probably be a finance major maybe english minor. He toured the school and really liked it. I know honors classes are relatively small but after reading about class size I am concerned about the large class size of many classes. Has this impacted your ability to learn the material? What is the percentage of classes over 150 students? How effective is watching classes by videotape?</p>

<p>As a journalism major, what opportunities are there in Gainesville for internships, part-time jobs, or any employment that will help you build your clip portfolio and overall job experience?</p>

<p>dx, not a UF student but I can tell you that the big journalism opps are in Tampa, Orlando and Miami. Not too much in North FL unless you go to Jax.</p>

<p>im planning on majoring in journalism...could you just tell me what you think about the program overall?</p>

<p>Laxdad1953: I only took 2 classes this year that weren't 3000 or 4000 level so I only had 2 classes with more than 30 people in them. Honors classes are SMALL, though. I've never taken any classes by videotape but my friend took stats that way and didn't seem to have a problem with it outside of it being very boring. I have to say that my biggest class that I've had so far (Comparative Politics with Ben Smith) was absolutely awesome. I never got to participate or anything like that but I learned so much from that man. It really depends on how well the Prof can lecture when it comes to handling that many students. </p>

<p>dxmzan, thereallunaloveg: UF is very good about helping you get internships. I'm in Writing For Mass Communication right now and before each lecture we talk about opportunities for internships, jobs, or freelancing. Journalism is a pre-professional track. It is very, very focused on teaching you how to get a job, build a portfolio, etc. You should have no problem, I've already gotten some clips and have been published, etc. They train you well. You have to remember that UF is in the top 5 journalism schools in the COUNTRY. There really is no other option inside of Florida. The Alligator reaches 50,000 people daily. It is the biggest student publication in the country. If you are serious about majoring in journalism, get to UF. To go more in-depth for Luna'a part of the question, you first take Intro to Journalism with everyone who is majoring in Ads, Journalism, or PR. Then you all move on to Writing For Mass Communication, which is a huge pain in the ass but ultimately rewarding because you end up with clips. Then the three majors split, and for the journalism majors comes Reporting which makes people cry. You will be Reporting 2 stories a week, one for HW, and one for lab. Then you will take editing, ethics, and laws of communication classes. You get to pick a "capstone" which is something like "Advanced Photojournalism" or "Advanced Magazine Feature Writing". Sorry, I'm kind of just throwing stuff on the end here but I'm not there yet/am getting tired of typing. Let me know if you have any more specific questions. A lot of this stuff can be answered on the UF website, you know...</p>

<p>this might seem like a weird question, but for the stories that you report on, do you come up with your own ideas, or are you assigned stories?</p>

<p>hey i'm an incoming freshman and i'm majoring in public relations. my original intent was to major in mass communications or communications studies but obviously uf doesn't have that. do you know if they're public relations school is any good and if it has good internship opportunities? gainsville just doesn't seem like the sort of town for that major.</p>

<p>when can I catch anonymous action at Stuzin?</p>

<p>laxdad1952:
I also am a freshman this year, so I thought I'd also weigh in on class sizes.</p>

<p>I'd say the average class size of the classes I have had so far has been about 150 people. My Chem 2, Calc 2, Organic Chem, and Am. History class all had about 150 people. In all of those but organic chem you also have a discussion group with about 30 people in it taught by a TA where you have a better chance to ask questions. This is especially helpful for math classes, b/c it is a chance to see a HW problem you didn'[ get done. </p>

<p>I took economics online in the fall. I would highly recommend taking an online class, as long as you have enough discipline to not fall behind. All you really need to do is watch 3 50 minute lectures a week, and take notes to study from before the exam.
The advantage of the online class is that you can watch them in your room, and if you only have 20 minutes, you can watch half a lecture and pick up where you left off later. You can also watch them at lik 1.5x speed and sae even more time.</p>

<p>the honors classes I have taken(Physics I and II) are very small. Pysics I had about 50 people, and Physics II only has about 20 people in it.</p>

<p>Overall, I don't think that smaller class size is the most important factor in determining how much you learn. It has much more to do with the quality of the proffesor.</p>

<p>thanks elweezer and big al</p>

<p>Big Al:</p>

<p>Did you take Calc 2 for AP students or just regular calc 2? I've heard that Calc 2 through honors is much more a theory class and could be harder unless you particularly love theory. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Luna: in MMC2100 you start off being assigned things like police reports; each lab adds a new dimension to reporting and eventually we started having to report on our own stories. In Reporting you do all your own reporting for every story that semester.</p>

<p>
[quote]
My Chem 2, Calc 2, Organic Chem, and Am. History class all had about 150 people.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Did you mean calc 1 or the calc 2 for ap people? I have never seen a calc 2 class over 30 people. The one I took had 22. </p>

<p>As for class size, I think its overrated. If you want the small class feel, just sit at the front and ask questions if you want. If you want one on one time with the professor, go to offices hours; something most people don't utilize often.</p>

<p>There are a few calc 2 classes with over 100 people this semester. The other ones have around 20-30.</p>

<p>My son is considering both UF and UM and will be majoring in Phyics. He has taken and passed 8 AP's and has taken the first year of college physics at FIU. I am hoping he will have smaller class sizes than you speak of. Maybe he should think harder about UM, as they offered him alot of $$. But we are gators are feel a loyality here...</p>

<p>I know I will sound biased, but Florida is the way to go. You say that you want to have classes that are smaller, and Florida offers that.</p>

<p>Most Physics classes at Florida are about 200-300 students big. These classes are then broken up into "Discussions." These are once or twice a week (depending on which physics class you are taking) and they have anywhere between 15 and 30 students. The discussions are led by TAs which are very competent in the class, so they are well led.</p>

<p>Hopefully this will help. Go with the loyalty =P</p>