<p>I'm currently a sophomore English major at Montclair and I was accepted at Rutgers New Brunswick for Fall 2013.
I plan to get my Ph.D and become a professor(yes, I know how difficult this is, but this is what I want to do with my life and I do have a back-up plan). Right now, the only thing holding me back from going to Rutgers is the fact that I'm nervous that I'll end up in lecture halls and I won't be able to stand out to my professors.
Right now, I have a great relationship with one of my English professors and I know that I'll get a great letter of recommendation when the time comes.
Is it possible that I can have a relationship like I currently have with a professor at Rutgers? Are there really that many lecture halls? I'm not worried about lecture halls outside of my major, I can deal with them for my general education classes. I'm just worried that I won't know my professors well enough to get good letters of recommendation when the time comes.</p>
<p>My son will be starting Rutgers in the fall, but this is what he and I were told by his guidance counselor at his high school…you have to make a lot more of an effort to stand out at a school that is the size of Rutgers than you would a small liberal arts college. Opportunities will not “fall into your lap” — you have to actively seek them out.</p>
<p>Expect some very large classes (I think she said 100 or more and in some cases many more) for the first year and maybe two until you are taking the upper level classes for your major. </p>
<p>After that, there will be much smaller classes and it will be easier and easier to stand out. </p>
<p>She described Rutgers though as a “very fine school” and said that all of the students who have gone there from his school report that they are extremely happy that they selected Rutgers. </p>
<p>Not sure if this helps, but hope it does.</p>
<p>English classes (especially 300 level courses) are very small, so you won’t be “lost in the crowd.”</p>
<p>I took expos last semester and even though all freshmen had to take it, there were only 20 students per class. I definitely made an effort to go to most, if not all, office hours and my instructor was really able to see the amount of effort I was putting into the class. She even wrote a rec letter for me recently. Don’t worry about being “lost into the crowd” especially in small-sized classes. Professors and TA’s will meet you half way if you make the effort.</p>