difficulty of big school vs. small school

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I'm not talking about prestige or anything. I was wondering whether ya'll thought big schools or small schools are more difficult (in general). I know a lot is dependent upon the school in question but I wanted to see what everyone had to say.

Like I know bigger schools may attract "better" professors because of financial reasons, but wouldn't a smaller school, with smaller classes, be able to make the classes harder because there are less students to teach and the professor could go more in depth with the material? I may be completely wrong but I wanted to see what everyone thought...
 
OP, are you referring to large or small medical schools, or undergraduate institutions? Please clarify.
 
my bad. i was mainly referring to undergrad schools. sorry for the misunderstanding.
 
My vote is for small schools. At large schools you can basically pick and choose the easy professors, but at smaller schools there may be only 1 or 2 professors teaching a specific subject so you wont have much leeway in that regard.
 
Ive had some pretty amazing professors at my school (i go to very small liberal arts college) so dont think its really fair to say the better ones go to the bigger schools. One of the big differences I see between my school and say a larger public university is the larger ones may have more stringent expectations for research from their professors. There is still a lot of research being done at my school, but its not really their main focus. Their main focus is their students and their courses. For me i'd rather have a professor more interested in his/her students than his/her research so for me that makes them "better" professors. But tahts just my opinion and i'm not trying to say that all professors at small schools are better than ones at large schools. Ive had a few pretty awful professors. Its just a different type of personality and mindset i think when comparing professors from big and large schools.

As far as difficulty, you are going to have difficult and easy courses/professors at both large and small schools. As chubby said, its pretty hard to avoid hard professors at a small school b/c there may be only two professors to choose from (and sometimes you dont even get a choice). For example, courses like genetics, anatomy, immnology physiology, physics I, etc are ALWAYS taught by the same professor at my school (there is only one option). The classes and professsors are hard, and you have no choice but to take them if your major/path leads you down that road.
 
My experience at a large undergrad was that the tougher classes often were the huge, entry level classes. This is because if you're learning bio or chem or econ in an auditorium with 1000 others, there's limited ability to question things, and when a test is written for that many students, there's less likelihood that the teacher will answer questions regarding the wording of the test question, ostensibly out of desire to keep things "fair" for all.

Often in the early level classes at a big school, the teachers were great, but there were so many students per teacher that interaction was massively limited -- the TAs tended to teach the smaller class sections, and these generally were PhD candidates who often were not very experienced at teaching.

So my spin on this would be to look at how good each type of school, big or small, was at understanding how well a student understood the material. This may be a subset of the "difficulty" of a school, but for me it was galling to understand the material well but at times not be able to fit my knowledge into a scantron (multiple choice) answer key.
 
thats another intersting difference between large and small schools. I havent seen a scantron since high school. I guess it makes sense that if you have a calss of 700 people you arent going to be grading tests with short and long answer essays....but if you go to a small school that all the tests are.....they are usually a combination of multiple choice, true false, fill in blank, short answer, and long answer questions. Whether or not that is a more difficult test will just depend on the kinds of questions you prefer to answer.
 
RySerr21 said:
thats another intersting difference between large and small schools. I havent seen a scantron since high school. I guess it makes sense that if you have a calss of 700 people you arent going to be grading tests with short and long answer essays....but if you go to a small school that all the tests are.....they are usually a combination of multiple choice, true false, fill in blank, short answer, and long answer questions. Whether or not that is a more difficult test will just depend on the kinds of questions you prefer to answer.
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Lol, i still take solely mc tests, but probably more free response in the latter part of my UG career.
 
ChubbyChaser said:
Lol, i still take solely mc tests, but probably more free response in the latter part of my UG career.
Click to expand...

im guessing most med school tests will be multiple choice too...in preparation for STEP 1 type quesitons?
 
I've been to a large UC school and transferred to a small liberal arts college. The small school is much harder even though it's less respected. In the UC, all I had to do was memorize some class notes and book chapters and take a few multiple choice tests for every class. A few classes required a paper that could be done in a few hours. In the LAC, professors have more time per student so we have to conduct independent research, take lengthy essay tests, do group projects, and write more intensive papers. I have yet to have a class that involved lectures where attendance was optional and a few multiple choice tests, whereas that was the norm in the large university. Another main drawback of a LAC is that the professors aren't conducting inspiring research themselves, so their classes tend to be less interesting for the most part -- they're teaching froma textbook, only one of my profs has included cutting-edge, not-in-the-textbooks-yet research in his classes. And if your personality and learning-style really clash with a prof or you bomb someone's class you still have to take classes from them later because they might be the only one teaching classes you need.

One benefit is that you get a more accurate picture of what grad school is really like, because you have to conduct research and stuff (rather than just assisting with it). Ironically, I transferred to this school to get more research experience and LORs to get into grad school, and that's how I found out that academia is not for me.
 
Chubby,
You make me laugh! Your status keeps changing>>congrats on being an attending now!
I apply in the 2011 cycle, and just so you know, I've learned/enjoyed a great deal from your posts.
 
Everyone else in my family (cousins and siblings of similar age) ended up going to large schools (State schools and the like), and I went to a small liberal arts school. Just so people know how I am comparing the two in this post.

I think it is important that you quoted "better" because that is very subjective. I feel why the actual knowledge of the professors may be similar in both settings, a liberal arts college is going to attract a specific kind of professor. In my experience I have had more professors who are there because they love to TEACH, not just because they love the topic they study. My teachers constantly tell us how much they love to talk to students, and have one on one teaching with them. So in that regard I feel they are "better teachers", though they may not be smarter or "better" in their field. In addition, small liberal arts colleges will almost never have TAs (or graduate students and the like) teaching a lab or similar class. All of my labs and conferences were ALL done by the same teacher who did the class (with a few minor exceptions...we have 2 o.chem professors. Each one does one semester but also takes some of the labs during the other semester). You really get to know your professors really well, and they know you really well. That could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it and what kind of person you are. You can't just space out in a 20 person class, ace the exams and think that will alone give the teacher a good impression of you. It is much easier for professors to know who you are as a PERSON, regardless of getting 100% on all their exams.

Another negative tends to be that liberal arts colleges invariably have to give up a huge variety of classes. You just can't offer 50 different upper division courses in a school with only a few thousand people, it isn't practical. My school has about 8 or 9 upper division biology electives, and that's it. They are all courses taught by someone who studies that specific field and knows what they are talking about, but you are still limited.

In general, I think it really depends on the kind of person you are. I've always really liked getting to know teachers, and talking to them a lot after lecture and in their office. I like the 1 on 1 interactions and I love getting to know everyone in my department. Some people would rather go to a school with a lot of people, where they can choose when and where to stand out and in all other cases can just "hide" without getting noticed. I am also not really a party person, so I never miss the endless opportunities for parties that are at larger schools (while my sister loved it). It kind of depends on how you learn, and what you find important.
 
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Bunny Fru Fru said:
Chubby,
You make me laugh! Your status keeps changing>>congrats on being an attending now!
I apply in the 2011 cycle, and just so you know, I've learned/enjoyed a great deal from your posts.
Click to expand...
Glad, someone appreciates me😀. O and as far as the attending thing, im a quick learner and over achiever😉
 
DrWookie said:
Everyone else in my family (cousins and siblings of similar age) ended up going to large schools (State schools and the like), and I went to a small liberal arts school. Just so people know how I am comparing the two in this post.

I think it is important that you quoted "better" because that is very subjective. I feel why the actual knowledge of the professors may be similar in both settings, a liberal arts college is going to attract a specific kind of professor. In my experience I have had more professors who are there because they love to TEACH, not just because they love the topic they study. My teachers constantly tell us how much they love to talk to students, and have one on one teaching with them. So in that regard I feel they are "better teachers", though they may not be smarter or "better" in their field. In addition, small liberal arts colleges will almost never have TAs (or graduate students and the like) teaching a lab or similar class. All of my labs and conferences were ALL done by the same teacher who did the class (with a few minor exceptions...we have 2 o.chem professors. Each one does one semester but also takes some of the labs during the other semester). You really get to know your professors really well, and they know you really well. That could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it and what kind of person you are. You can't just space out in a 20 person class, ace the exams and think that will alone give the teacher a good impression of you. It is much easier for professors to know who you are as a PERSON, regardless of getting 100% on all their exams.

Another negative tends to be that liberal arts colleges invariable have to give up a huge variety of classes. You just can't offer 50 different upper division courses in a school with only a few thousand people, it isn't practical. My school has about 8 or 9 upper division biology electives, and that's it. They are all courses taught by someone who studies that specific field and knows what they are talking about, but you are still limited.

In general, I think it really depends on the kind of person you are. I've always really liked getting to know teachers, and talking to them a lot after lecture and in their office. I like the 1 on 1 interactions and I love getting to know everyone in my department. Some people would rather go to a school with a lot of people, where they can choose when and where to stand out and in all other cases can just "hide" without getting noticed. I am also not really a party person, so I never miss the endless opportunities for parties that are at larger schools (while my sister loved it). It kind of depends on how you learn, and what you find important.
Click to expand...
QFT...very good and informative post.
 
Oh and while this post may not be read by many people who are pre-college, I would add one more thing:

I think with liberal arts colleges it is far more important to do your homework in terms of what the school has to offer and whether it fits with what you need or want. Big schools are going to basically have anything you could ever want, because they have enough people such that they need to provide it. A small liberal arts school could have a very strong department but just not offer classes in something you are really interested in. I imagine it is hard in high school to really know specifically what you want to study (I'm not talking biology, I'm talking specifics within biology and other fields), but still it is something to think about.

I was fairly immature in picking my school. I didn't put that much thought into it and just thought it looked nice and that was that. I was VERY lucky that the courses offered and the interests of the faculty fit well with what I wanted to study and what I liked to do. However, I imagine not every would be so lucky.
 
Go to a small research intensive school. You get the individual attention that will help you learn but you aren't limited by the lack of on-going research at the school. Small doesn't have to mean liberal arts.
 
I do enjoy getting to know my professors. But I just didn't know if maybe anyone had any thoughts on which was more difficult. And I agree that it depends on the professor. I know at my school I have lots of opportunities to do independent research because professors are willing to work with each student on a personal level. I really enjoy my school and we have people transfer from state schools to our private school and say that it is lots harder. I know that it is not that important but I wanted to see how it was viewed by everyone else.
 
mrdrdrjp said:
I'm not talking about prestige or anything. I was wondering whether ya'll thought big schools or small schools are more difficult (in general). I know a lot is dependent upon the school in question but I wanted to see what everyone had to say.

Like I know bigger schools may attract "better" professors because of financial reasons, but wouldn't a smaller school, with smaller classes, be able to make the classes harder because there are less students to teach and the professor could go more in depth with the material? I may be completely wrong but I wanted to see what everyone thought...
Click to expand...
I think curves are more common in big schools, the logic being that there are so many students that statistically it's a good way to grade. Since I've been to only one type of school it's hard for me to compare. I will say that a desire to teach is much lower on the list of qualifications to be on the faculty at a large school, so intro classes (aka all the premed reqs) could be a challenge. The upside is that there are a lot of very tiny classes at the graduate/upper level in highly specific topics taught by people who are leaders in the field. And those classes usually don't have TAs, so that's nice.
 
DrWookie said:
Oh and while this post may not be read by many people who are pre-college, I would add one more thing:

I think with liberal arts colleges it is far more important to do your homework in terms of what the school has to offer and whether it fits with what you need or want. Big schools are going to basically have anything you could ever want, because they have enough people such that they need to provide it. A small liberal arts school could have a very strong department but just not offer classes in something you are really interested in. I imagine it is hard in high school to really know specifically what you want to study (I'm not talking biology, I'm talking specifics within biology and other fields), but still it is something to think about.

I was fairly immature in picking my school. I didn't put that much thought into it and just thought it looked nice and that was that. I was VERY lucky that the courses offered and the interests of the faculty fit well with what I wanted to study and what I liked to do. However, I imagine not every would be so lucky.
Click to expand...
I think that's a great point. There are some high quality liberal arts colleges that, for example, don't even have an engineering department. Obviously if you suddenly decided your life's goal was to be an engineer, this could be a problem.
 
sarahg said:
I've been to a large UC school and transferred to a small liberal arts college. The small school is much harder even though it's less respected. In the UC, all I had to do was memorize some class notes and book chapters and take a few multiple choice tests for every class. A few classes required a paper that could be done in a few hours. In the LAC, professors have more time per student so we have to conduct independent research, take lengthy essay tests, do group projects, and write more intensive papers. I have yet to have a class that involved lectures where attendance was optional and a few multiple choice tests, whereas that was the norm in the large university. Another main drawback of a LAC is that the professors aren't conducting inspiring research themselves, so their classes tend to be less interesting for the most part -- they're teaching froma textbook, only one of my profs has included cutting-edge, not-in-the-textbooks-yet research in his classes. And if your personality and learning-style really clash with a prof or you bomb someone's class you still have to take classes from them later because they might be the only one teaching classes you need.

One benefit is that you get a more accurate picture of what grad school is really like, because you have to conduct research and stuff (rather than just assisting with it). Ironically, I transferred to this school to get more research experience and LORs to get into grad school, and that's how I found out that academia is not for me.
Click to expand...

I go to a smaller school and it sounds like it's along the same lines as yours. I absolutely love it though. I commute an hour and a half one way just to go to this school because there is more access to equipment in undergrad, very small upper level classes, and more time with professors. I was shocked when I started and they all knew who I was without really talking to them (because of my grades on their tests). They also throw embedded tutors into the classes which helps a lot of the other students out. There is also a lot of reseach opportuntities (well there has to be since a presentation of your research is required to graduate). There is another university about 45 min away but it is larger and I've heard the science department wasn't as great (less access to equipment also). But the downfall is that there are only a few professors that teach each class and many only have the one professor. So far, I haven't had anyone too umbearable but I try to go in with an open mind. Also, the professors really encourage the use of office hours for tutoring and there really is never any trouble just walking in to ask questions. 🙂 I haven't been to a large school before, so I have nothing to add on that part of it 🙂
 
I love my small school and the personalized education. I guess I just wanted to know whether what I was learning was as difficult as what is learned at a larger school.
 
mrdrdrjp said:
my bad. i was mainly referring to undergrad schools. sorry for the misunderstanding.
Click to expand...
I was going to say, if you're talking about medical schools, they're ALL hard. :laugh:

Don't worry about which schools are harder or easier. If you like your school and you're getting good grades, then it doesn't matter. I think harder versus easier is subjective anyway. What you think is easy is hard to some other people and vice versa. So if you transferred to one of the state schools that other people said were easier, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll think the state school is easier too just because they did.
 
Big schools are easier, especially during the first year or two, because there are (usually) a bunch of dumb people in your classes who bring the standards down.
 
I personally like my small school becaus I am able to still be the best lol. Yes this is totally about my ego
 
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