140 Public universities charge more for certain majors

[ucbalumnus]

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@bluebayou

I get the idea that Engineering is really expensive to offer, but I’d love to see if Gen Chem or Gen Bio is all that more expensive than say, Frosh Writing/English. Sure, Gen Chem has a lab, which requires a few chemical and (cheap) glassware, but Gen Chem/Bio has ONE prof teaching hundreds of kids in a lecture hall (TA’s are relatively cheap labor). In contrast, some Lit courses can be capped at a Prof/student ratio of 15:1…

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<p>At schools other than LAC-model schools, those small freshmen English composition (and beginning foreign language) courses often use graduate student instructors as the primary instructors. It is the more advanced literature courses that are small courses run by faculty members. But that is true of more advanced courses in other subjects.</p>

<p>So freshman English composition needs one GSI per 15 students. In contrast, freshman general chemistry needs one GSI per 15 student lab, plus the lab facilities and consumables, plus a small share of the faculty member doing the lecture.</p>

<p>In a LAC-model school where freshman classes are small ones run by faculty, you have one faculty member per 15 students in freshman English composition, compared to one faculty member per 15 students plus the lab facilities and consumables for freshman general chemistry.</p>