class size Q

[chef]

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In most cases, is it the school or the national governing board (what is it called again?) that decides the size of student body at that school?

If it is the latter, does a very small student body tell you that the school is lacking in facilities, faculty, and resources? Wouldn't every school want to have as many students as possible b/c that'll mean more income from tuition?

Does the class enrollment change every few years ?

Do you guys prefer smaller size or larger sized schools, and why?

 

[A1phaZer0]

I would prefer any school that would accept me 🙂

 

[vyc]

i don't know all the answers to your questions so i'll just give my opinion. 🙂

i'm under the impression that class size doesn't vary too much over the years. (someone correct me if i'm wrong)

personally, i want a big class, probably not more than 150 though. i'll be taking classes with these same people everyday for at least two years and there's a greater chance of finding cool people i get along with at a school with a class size of 150, over say, 50 or 80.

plus i like diversity and the larger the group, the better it is.

 

[UCMonkey]

OK, here we go...

•In most cases, is it the school or the national governing board (what is it called again?) that decides the size of student body at that school? •

As far as I know, the school. Note that schools with smaller student bodies in general have smaller med school classes. I have no idea why the AAMC would care about individual school class sizes.

•If it is the latter, does a very small student body tell you that the school is lacking in facilities, faculty, and resources? Wouldn't every school want to have as many students as possible b/c that'll mean more income from tuition? •

No. Bottom line, if a school is has a smaller class size, they may be able to spend more $ per student.

•Does the class enrollment change every few years ? •

Again, no. I think class size is really determined by how many people the school has lab/lecture space for. So to increase class size, the school would have to build. And that doesn't happen too often.

•Do you guys prefer smaller size or larger sized schools, and why?•

Personally, I prefer a larger school. There are more people around to meet, etc. If the school gets too large, though, there is the issue of getting lost in the crowd.

 

[Original]

The smaller the class the better for me. I just finished grad school and we averaged 8 students per class; so even 100 students in one room would make my eyes spring out of the socket for a minute.

 

[Hero]

large class for me.

Since med school is pretty close, there's a good chance to get to know many of ur class mates. and with more people you can have a chance to find more people with similiar interests.

 

[mpp]

The schools themselves choose their class sizes. In the case of public schools, of course the state would have some say in the size. Your tuition payment is often just a tiny portion of the total cost of the education you receive. For state schools, the majority of the money for your education comes from state coffers, so an increase in the size might require some sort of state legislation approval, or minimally, approval from the schools' Board of Regents or other governing body.

For many private schools, tuition is also just part of the cost of the education. The rest comes from alumni-giving and grants from state and federal agencies.

I much prefer a smaller class size. As a teacher for many years, I know that I was much more effective, and the students learned with less difficulty, when the class size was smaller. The social consequences of a small class are negligible to me.

 

[EpiII]

In CA, the state legislature has mandated the class size for the UC schools. UCSF has 141, Davis 92, Irvine 91, etc. I do not know how they came up with the numbers, but they are fixed right now and do not change from year to year. Part of the reason for limiting the size is the fact that the state does pick up part of the tab for each student. (Most of us would be willing to pay our own way through for an extra spot here or there 🙂 )

How Stanford, USC and Loma Linda choose their size, I do not know.

 

[Forensic Chick]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by Original:
•The smaller the class the better for me. I just finished grad school and we averaged 8 students per class; so even 100 students in one room would make my eyes spring out of the socket for a minute.•••••EIGHT students per class?!?! I'm used to ~150, so I'd obviously prefer a larger class. Wow, I couldn't imagine just having 8 people in a class... But I guess it would be nice because the professor would pay more personal attention to your work - but that can be bad too... Wow, 8 people/class... I'm amazed.

 

[medicine2006]

If you're into schools with large classes Philadelphia may be the city for you.

MCP Hahnemann class size=250
Jefferson about 250
Philadelphia colloge of osteopathic med 250
Temple don't know but over 100
UPENN don't know

Add this up and you have literally thousands of medical students at any given time making thier way trough philly teaching hospitals,