Big, rah-rah schools with mostly small (<30 or 40) classes and sufficient hands-on advising to graduate in 4?

[Anonymous]

TCU

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do such beasts exist? Where might they be found?

Notre Dame
Duke
Wake

[Anonymous]

I agree about Catholic basketball colleges - Villanova, Providence, Marquette, Gonzaga.

Syracuse also, although certainly classes will be big in intro level classes - as they will at almost all classes.

[Anonymous]

Recitations/discussion sections/labs with TAs are completely common. I don't remember having a class where the main professor was a grad student and there was an added class hour with a TA. It was always full professor/TA pairs.

I had just one bad TA out of the bunch and one who was fine as a teacher but he made a math mistake in my grade. Professors also vary in quality.

Unless the subject lends itself to discussion, high school sized classes are not necessary. If you want to have a relationship with the prof in a larger class, you sit up front and occasionally go to office hours.

My kid is going to a rah rah flagship this fall. I expect 3/5 classes, maybe 4/6, to be 40 or fewer students.

[Anonymous]

Which major, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors college at a state flagship?

This is the answer. Most honors colleges promise smaller classes.

Yeah, for ~one class each semester...

[Anonymous]

Duke
Notre Dame
USC

[Anonymous]

Wake Forest ( if you can get in)

[Anonymous]

sufficient hands-on advising to graduate in 4?

Why can't the student do this? Honestly, you become *very* familiar with the Course of Studies and Majors. You create "what if" scenarios. I think the student knows themself best, strengths and weaknesses. Parents second. I'd put any Advisor third in line.

Imho, the smaller the school, the Advisors exert a firmer hand on keeping students from exploring other majors. Not a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honors college at a state flagship?

This is the answer. Most honors colleges promise smaller classes.

In my dd's experience, they don't deliver. The only benefits she got were housing (which ended up being only with honors and awful) and early scheduling, which didn't matter because the classes were hundreds of kids. And for whoever replied with "and they have recitation" - do you even understand what that means?? It means DOUBLE the class time with a TA. It's bullshit. It's the class time PLUS another class time because it's necessary to bridge the gap with a class with hundreds of kids. DD transferred to a school with small classes, taught by professors. No recitations. It's D1 and has deep traditions, but isn't a big football school (if that's what rah-rah means here).

OP - you need to look at schools that don't use TAs and don't have recitation.

We tripled our tuition payments to get her out of an honors college at a rah-rah school

My kid is transferring out of a state flagship for similar reasons. We all thought the TA model would work fine but they’ve found it tedious. Poor communication, bad TAs, checked out professors. Few return emails, few show up for their office hours, TAs pushing their discussion sections to Zoom. Students register for prerequisites they don’t need and then sell their seats on Reddit and the school does nothing about it. It’s been such a disappointment.

I would hope all state flagships don’t have the same culture, but it’s worth digging a little deeper on sites where students post.

[Anonymous]

That sounds horrible! Pls share the school name so others don’t make same mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Michigan
Boston College
USC
Notre Dame

30-40 people classes? maybe upper level classes but not your freshman or even prob sophomore years.

Wrong.

[Anonymous]

Students register for prerequisites they don’t need and then sell their seats on Reddit and the school does nothing about it.

This I find most disturbing/fascinating. How this is even done.

[Anonymous]

Villanova, unless by "rah rah" you mean big time football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMiami, Syracuse, Jesuit basketball schools

yes-great school spirit. Xavier, Fairfield, Creighton,Providence