U.S. News pulls Columbia University from its 2022 rankings

Re:U.S. News pulls Columbia University from its 2022 rankings by poulsbohemian on Monday July 11, 2022 @05:17PM (#32061995)

What I've heard anecdotal bears out what you are saying, IE: once you get through various mega weed-out classes, in many universities you still get the luxury of smaller class sizes and more direct access to professors as you reach those upper level classes.

Where I was asking for clarification was on the idea that somehow people were getting better materials and a better overall experience in thee 500+ people lecture hall type experiences, rather than those 20-person intimate learning style classes.

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Re:U.S. News pulls Columbia University from its 2022 rankings by lumost on Monday July 11, 2022 @07:42PM (#32063667)

My point was that a large 500 person lecture on "Intro to ElectroMagnetism" will be about the same as a small 20 person lecture in terms of material. The variability will come from

- Honors sessions - Extra seminars - Quality of Material - Quality of student support groups

All of these things get better as the class size grows. In my last class at Georgia Tech, there were 900 students studying a niche topic from a particular professor. Due to class size, there were ~12 TAs and an extremely active slack discussion group where people could get support.

A smaller class just means the professor has limited resources to assist students.

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Re:U.S. News pulls Columbia University from its 2022 rankings by jimhefferon on Monday July 11, 2022 @06:54PM (#32063207)

One factor I don't see anyone mentioning here is the student. Some people can do great in a large lecture and that's great. But I teach in a SLAC and often students tell me they don't think they could do well without the smaller courses.

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