<p>I really want to get out of my school but I don’t know if would really change too much. My main complaints are my lecture classes (400-500 students) and the fact that getting the desired courses, which are limited in the first place, is very difficult. Most of my other classes are about 30-50 students. Seniors get the first pick at classes, then Juniors etc, which makes sense, but even they complain about not being able to get the classes they want. It’s just a big hassle and this semester I’ve ended up taking two courses I do not really care about. So basically, how does it work for your school? I’m guessing that since I’m a freshman and am taking intro courses it is more likely to be large lectures, but 491 for Psychology was a little messed up. But if I’m majoring in economics with 400 students in my micro class, and I pay for courses that I don’t want to take, then what is the point?</p>
<p>Current School: CUNY Baruch College
Schools I am applying to: U Chicago, Northwestern, NYU, U Penn</p>
<p>I currently go to SUNY Plattsburgh, and it’s very small - you get one on one with professors and most classes are about 25-30 students, my smallest class has maybe 8 students, my largest has 72.
The way classes are chosen are altered a lot, supposedly last year freshman got to pick first, this year it was seniors, and its extrememly annoying - i need thirty credits total to even apply to transfer to another school, but because of the system, and seniors getting to pick first, i’m off by two credits.</p>
<p>So maybe its SUNY/CUNY schools that are all the same? </p>
<p>Jesminder: That sucks that you’re only off by 2 credits. The way I look at it, if you pay for an education that much, you should be able to choose the classes you want when you you want them. But then again I only pay about 2000/semester… </p>
<p>atanas_vs: Did you have a problem choosing your classes? How much did you have to settle class wise and how is the class-choosing process ar Northwestern? Any experiences that you think are worth mentioning since I really want to go there?</p>
<p>I haven’t had problems getting into my classes so far, except for my Micro class in the very first quarter, but that is because I dropped another class to get into Micro, and it was like a week after the start when I decided i should go for it. I got in, eventually. The class choosing process is: you are assigned a university number. You register according to your last two digits, with Seniors registering 1st, Juniors 2nd, etc. They are rotating when you should register every quarter, so I guess it is fair. Also, you register beforehand if you are majoring in that subject. If you desperately need to be in a class you can talk to the professor and get a departamental permission, or simply wait for a week until someone decides that class is way too hard and leaves, so that you can get her place.
Fair as it is, though, my roommate was not able to register for his Macro class this quarter and was stuck in another one, but he didn’t really try hard to get into the desired one.</p>
<p>“or simply wait for a week until someone decides that class is way too hard and leaves, so that you can get her place.”</p>
<p>I’m guessing you meant “him or her” lol. Actually, I’ve heard women tend to perform better than men these days, though their SAT is down forty points or so from men.</p>
<p>jacknjill: if you transfer, you <em>may</em> end up having to register late and get stuck with bad profs/classes you don’t want or need. Make sure you know the school’s policy before transferring. Also, as I remember, NYU is the largest private school in America, so I doubt class sizes will be much smaller for freshman and sophomores.</p>
<p>" ‘or simply wait for a week until someone decides that class is way too hard and leaves, so that you can get her place.’</p>
<p>I’m guessing you meant “him or her” lol. Actually, I’ve heard women tend to perform better than men these days, though their SAT is down forty points or so from men."
Twenty8, the funny thing is that I really say “her” and “she” all the time as a promoter to the equality of women in society, but this time I really fu cked up by saying this. Did not mean to infer anything, on the contrary - everybody knows that women are way smarter nowadays… My high school had a quota for boys - 8 boys, 18 girls in every class, since otherwise it would be all 26 girls class… They are intellectually superior!</p>
<p>I guess there aren’t that many colleges which have small classes for freshmen. The way I look at it, if a class is so huge that you can’t really interact normally with the prof, and if the prof is mainly going by the book, then I’m wasting my money for my education as I can do that myself. Personally, I don’t see myself really caring if I don’t have a good relationship with the prof. Sure I can learn it and get an A, but academics at college should be more than that. It should include really getting in the subject and having constant interactions with your peers and profs and stuff. Basically college should take you further than a textbook. Oh well, I guess I’m just too bitter or eager to transfer, or just idealistic. </p>
<p>As if all that isn’t enough, I didn’t get half the classes I wanted :(</p>