<p>In response to Hippo’s post:</p>
<p>This past year, Stanford offered more than 200 introductory seminars (capped at 16, but the overwhelming majority have far fewer). I’ve never heard of a TA or postdoc teaching a course–they will lead section, but never (to my knowledge) actually be the lecturer. Even in intro physics or math classes, professors, not TAs, teach the material.</p>
<p>Also, the statistics say that 75% of Stanford’s courses have fewer than 15 students, 4% over 100, and only 2% over 120. Large lectures are always supplemented with small discussions, though I have had classes with 15 or so students in the class and they still held sections.</p>