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I'm assuming this is America? 300 person classes is insane, particular how much debt's involved. I've studied in the UK and EU, and I don't think I've ever bee

I'm assuming this is America? 300 person classes is insane, particular how much debt's involved. I've studied in the UK and EU, and I don't think I've ever been in a class larger than 40.

amalcon 3y ago
The bigger schools like Harvard often have that for the first year classes, especially classes that are required for all or many majors. The class itself, and the lectures, will have many students -- but there's usually ample availability of grad student TAs for more individualized interaction. A grad student is usually perfectly capable of teaching a freshman class. Smaller schools and upper level classes generally just have fewer people. Edit: Keep in mind that teaching is something the professor usually just puts up with, to get the resources and credibility to do the thing they are really passionate about (research or writing).
bluGill 3y ago
One someone is standing in front of the room talking it doesn't really matter if there is one person in the room or 1 billion. sure you need a PA system and other technology to support a large crowd, but otherwise it doesn't matter. Most students would prefer to be in a large room with someone who is a great speaker vs a small room with less. If you do have questions - that is what the TA is for and you get to see the TA at least weekly. Note that the above only applies if the class is supposed to be a lecture. If it is supposed to be interactive then small classes are better. However many of the basic undergrad 1st year courses have been done so often the professor should already answer all possible questions if you keep listening. As you advance that becomes less and less true of course.
- sumtechguy 3y ago
  Also they are the 'weeder' classes as the staff put it to me. Basically everyone wants to go to college. Many can get in. But not everyone is cut out for it. Those classes are usually decently challenging but mostly lectures. They cut out the people who should not be there or are not ready for it. They are also decently big because almost all of the curriculum paths require these core classes. Your second year will be 20-30 people. By the time you are in your 4th year most classes are 10-15 people usually mixed graduate/undergraduate people.
- slaymaker1907 3y ago
  That's only true of lecture and your hypothesis about answering all potential questions is out of whack with how humans actually learn. Someone asking a question might just be a matter of not hearing something repeated enough times or maybe they just need to hear it phrased in a different way. Even with large classes, there are usually a bunch of TAs to try and provide more one-on-one help and often labs that exist solely to encourage questions to the TAs and reinforce material in a smaller setting.
  - bluGill 3y ago
    For the record: I fully agree with you. there is good reason things are done in large lectures anyway, but they are not really great.
HDThoreaun 3y ago
I went to a top 15 cs department and every single undergrad cs class except the senior project had 150+ people. They also had discussion sections though but usually there were 2 TAs running all the discussions so I don’t think enough to run oral exams.
KeplerBoy 3y ago
Lectures absolutely are attended by 200-300 students at a time in parts of the EU. The professor hate teaching those classes, students hate attending them and as a result half the people will drop out before they get to experience the real classes.
Tijdreiziger 3y ago
I have a Dutch CS degree, we had about 200 new freshmen every year. 40 seems excessively low for popular degrees.
- em-bee 3y ago
  same in austria and germany. undergrad lectures usually have hundreds of students.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  You can have multiple sections of the same course. At the university I went to, there were about ~150 CS students per year. The very largest classes were 50 students each, with 3 sections of the same course, sometimes taught by the same professor, sometimes taught by different professors. As you progressed through the program, the number of "every CS major takes this course" courses reduced, and most classes were 20-something students.
- Ekaros 3y ago
  Similar in Finland. Courses like math and physics which were required were common for more than one program. Thus even if programs were small these first classes ended up being massive. And there were actually multiple of those classes even then between multiple Departments...

I'm assuming this is America? 300 person classes is insane, particular how much debt's involved. I've studied in the UK and EU, and I don't think I've ever been in a class larger than 40.

amalcon 3y ago

The bigger schools like Harvard often have that for the first year classes, especially classes that are required for all or many majors. The class itself, and the lectures, will have many students -- but there's usually ample availability of grad student TAs for more individualized interaction. A grad student is usually perfectly capable of teaching a freshman class. Smaller schools and upper level classes generally just have fewer people. Edit: Keep in mind that teaching is something the professor usually just puts up with, to get the resources and credibility to do the thing they are really passionate about (research or writing).

bluGill 3y ago

One someone is standing in front of the room talking it doesn't really matter if there is one person in the room or 1 billion. sure you need a PA system and other technology to support a large crowd, but otherwise it doesn't matter. Most students would prefer to be in a large room with someone who is a great speaker vs a small room with less. If you do have questions - that is what the TA is for and you get to see the TA at least weekly. Note that the above only applies if the class is supposed to be a lecture. If it is supposed to be interactive then small classes are better. However many of the basic undergrad 1st year courses have been done so often the professor should already answer all possible questions if you keep listening. As you advance that becomes less and less true of course.

sumtechguy 3y ago
Also they are the 'weeder' classes as the staff put it to me. Basically everyone wants to go to college. Many can get in. But not everyone is cut out for it. Those classes are usually decently challenging but mostly lectures. They cut out the people who should not be there or are not ready for it. They are also decently big because almost all of the curriculum paths require these core classes. Your second year will be 20-30 people. By the time you are in your 4th year most classes are 10-15 people usually mixed graduate/undergraduate people.
slaymaker1907 3y ago
That's only true of lecture and your hypothesis about answering all potential questions is out of whack with how humans actually learn. Someone asking a question might just be a matter of not hearing something repeated enough times or maybe they just need to hear it phrased in a different way. Even with large classes, there are usually a bunch of TAs to try and provide more one-on-one help and often labs that exist solely to encourage questions to the TAs and reinforce material in a smaller setting.
- bluGill 3y ago
  For the record: I fully agree with you. there is good reason things are done in large lectures anyway, but they are not really great.

HDThoreaun 3y ago

I went to a top 15 cs department and every single undergrad cs class except the senior project had 150+ people. They also had discussion sections though but usually there were 2 TAs running all the discussions so I don’t think enough to run oral exams.

KeplerBoy 3y ago

Lectures absolutely are attended by 200-300 students at a time in parts of the EU. The professor hate teaching those classes, students hate attending them and as a result half the people will drop out before they get to experience the real classes.

Tijdreiziger 3y ago

I have a Dutch CS degree, we had about 200 new freshmen every year. 40 seems excessively low for popular degrees.

em-bee 3y ago
same in austria and germany. undergrad lectures usually have hundreds of students.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
You can have multiple sections of the same course. At the university I went to, there were about ~150 CS students per year. The very largest classes were 50 students each, with 3 sections of the same course, sometimes taught by the same professor, sometimes taught by different professors. As you progressed through the program, the number of "every CS major takes this course" courses reduced, and most classes were 20-something students.
Ekaros 3y ago
Similar in Finland. Courses like math and physics which were required were common for more than one program. Thus even if programs were small these first classes ended up being massive. And there were actually multiple of those classes even then between multiple Departments...