What size are your classes? (MBA, state school, best, assistant)

[DSS94]

Just out of curiosity. What kind of school did you attend and what size are your classes, or if you've already graduated just give a general idea. And how important do you think class size is?

I attend a medium-sized public university. This semester my classes are:

Global Climate Change: 96 student lecture with 24 student lab.
American Social Welfare System: 40
Issues in American Foreign Policy: 16 (combined history/English discussion-based course)
The Stage Environment (theatre design intro course): 14

[scorpio516]

I attended a couple large state flagships and a smaller state school for grad school

Physics 101 - 400+ in lecture, ~25 in lab
English 101/102 - 25
Architecture lectures - 75
Architecture studio - 15
Art studios - 15

500/600 level accounting or Finance - 12 +/-

Even in the 400+ lectures, I could raise my hand and ask questions. 400+ could NEVER work in a studio class. 15 is about the max that works in a studio! I think all those sizes were adequate.

[brocco]

i went to a small-mid sized private university (~6,000 undergrads) and my classes ranged from 3 students to 300. most were around 20. i never minded larger classes, though. a couple of my very best professors/classes were the 100-300 ones.

[charolastra00]

I attended a small private university (~3000 undergrads) where I now work, and am working toward an MBA at an even smaller School of Social Policy (~500 grad students) within the university.

Most classes in undergrad were under 20 people, and often smaller than that in my two minors (environmental science and Latin American studies aren't so popular). A class of 30 people felt big. The exception were some intro class (Intro to International Relations, Globalization, Programming in Java and C, Intro to Political Science) which were around 100 people and were housed in our largest lecture halls - and for me were totally overwhelming and not a particularly good method of education.

In the MBA program, the biggest core classes are 50 (because it pulls from all programs in the school - accounting), most classes are around 30, and the smallest seminars and capstones are 10 people.

Can't imagine going any larger.

[Kenmar2]

Grade 5 / Wisconsin / 37 / no aide or assistant

[DSS94]

The 96 person Climate Change lecture is my first experience with a lecture hall, last semester my largest class was 32 students.

I don't have any trouble with it, it's not extremely large so we can still ask and answer questions. I don't like the grad student who is teaching my lab however, especially since I thought looking at my schedule that an adjunct professor would be teaching it. Now I realize that it was probably just that student's adviser who was listed. He speaks too quietly and seems to have very little idea of what he's talking about.

[Sally_Sparrow]

I attended community college for three years (a combo of full and part time)... at that level I never had more than 30 in any class and it was really wonderful. With few exceptions, I was very familiar with each of my professors/instructors by the end of each semester.

I have now transferred to a four year university and many of my classes are huge, in big lecture halls. My Biology last semester had 300 students, currently I am taking an upper level Psych class with about 90, an English lit course with about 200 and an upper level Sociology course with about 90.

Seems funny to me since I am paying four times as much these days but that's the way of things huh?

[emcee squared]

Well, I attended a large university. 52,000 students, I believe.

Most of my classes were under 35 students. Only the general classes in large lecture halls had 100s. 500-800 were present in one lecture once.

[Westerner92]

This semester I have one that's about 90, and the rest are about 50. The labs and TA sessions, as usual, have around 20 students. My underclassman lectures averaged 100-150 students, which makes sense given I'm in one of the most populous schools in one of the most populous universities in the nation.