Reply to Middlebury Suffering with larger class sizes and enrollment

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here’s my unpopular opinion: does it really matter than an Econ seminar course or topology class have 10 kids in it? If the college limits enrollment in these courses, the students will complain next that they can’t finish their majors or there’s limited course availability. Students deserve to take the courses they want to, and if that means a few students may have to move a few chairs from one to the other, that’s a much better alternative to shutting students off  and keeping 8 students in the class because of some desire for intimacy about a subject as mundane as econometrics.[/quote]

Agree with you.

Based on my high school and flagship experience a class size of 30-ish is acceptable with motivated, interested learners.

What I got out of this article, bottom line, is that Middlebury needs to invest in new stackable chairs.

When I got my first dorm at a flagship, I flipped my wooden chair over and it had a name plaque on it that proved the chair was at least 40, if not 60, years old. My first government office in the 90s had old blond wood furniture that a government colleague of mine amusingly referred to as the "LBJ Great Society furniture".

Midd needs chairs.  Cheaper than remedying bad p.r.[/quote]

you can't compare the value proposition of a large, public school with a small liberal arts college. people pay vastly different prices for public college versus small, private LAC. you are essentially paying in part for the guarantee of mostly small seminar-style classes at middlebury. just like you are paying for larger seats and more leg room in business class versus economy when you fly. public school has the expectation of economy seating. you get to the same destination as business class, but with economy class you pay less and it's slightly more uncomfortable journey. same with LAC versus big state school. [/quote]

Please do not equate the privilege of being able to bow out of class discussion when you feel off or skip lecture without it being analyzed as "more uncomfortable" by LAC grads.  I sat up front in plenty of big classes, said hi to the prof, read all the readings, raised my hand and asked questions when I felt like it.  I've always preferred to hear more from the profs/experts vs. bloviating peers.  [b]In my pricy MBA classes[/b] the section sizes were about 70, and we did a fair bit of case method discussions.  This is not an economy class marker.  It's an instructional delivery difference.

Maybe the sad thing is, just like business class these days, LACs are lower quality than they used to be at higher real prices.

Still think they need chairs.  Kids shouldn't have to move furniture for class to start.[/quote]

We are talking about undergrads. Why are you bloviating about your pricey MBA grad school class experience when it's not relevant to this discussion about college/undergrad class experience?

Btw - it's pricey, not pricy.[/quote]

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