Centerfield

Having gone to a large one, UC Berkeley, I will agree that there are ups and downs to big schools. On one hand you've got the undergraduate cattle rush where in my first quarter I took Chem 1A with about 1200 other students. On the other hand there are incredible people to learn from, whether you like it or not. The biggest dread of any pre-med in the 60's and 70's was taking organic chemistry from Melvin Calvin, Nobel prize-winner for his work on photosynthesis. His were perhaps the most difficult course but you learned well if you passed it. You had Leon Litwack(check wikipedia), who recently retired, who was one of the most engaging lecturers on American History and one of the foremost authorities on race relations within this country. His last lecture was to an overflow crowd. I liked pretty much all of my professors although some of the TA's could have used english lessons. They were all accessible, I could hang out with a professor or TA and go over various physics problems. One biology teacher, who I never took a course from, dressed up as scientists and would give a lectures as if he were Darwin or Mendel or whomever. Oh, and there was Charles Schwarz, who walked into his physics lecture and wrote "NOT GUILTY" on the blackboard as we all apllauded. (Had to do with a demonstration at the Livermore weapons labs). As cameraman/Technical Director, I got to sit on on various computer and engineering classes that were being sent to Livermore, Sandia and other locales. I even got to hang out with Glenn Seaborg during a presentation.

For smaller schools, my girlfriend at the time went to one of the local JC,s Laney College, to take an anatomy class. It was very top-notch and considered one of the best in the Bay Area. At the time it was not unusual for people to do their lower division work in community colleges and state universities and then transfer over to the UC system. She liked the smaller class sizes.

My current love went to Davidson, a 'small' college. Studied her ass off and eventually got her Ph.D in chemistry. She did find Davidson much more insular and that in itself was a problem. Too many people know each other. It was almost like dealing with high school all over again. Sometimes the anonymity of a large school like Cal can be helpful.

UC Berkeley (about 32,000) is one of the top public universities in the world and Davidson(1,700) is usually in the top 10 or twenty of private colleges in the US.
Both have great strengths and I would have no problem putting a kid in either one.

Incidently, my half-sister was denied admission at Cal - too smart of an asian kid and had to go to Stanfurd instead. It's got about 15,000 grad and undergraduates.

BTW, there are huge waiting lists for these three schools.

The other joy of a big school is the shear number of different subjects that are on offer. With a little effort, you can sample all sorts of stuff, even if you already know what you want to focus on. (Where else but UC Berkeely could I have studied Mechanical Engineering, and still gotten a class in the Landscape Architecture of Japanese Gardens? Not a whole lot of places -- and none of them small schools.) The size of the place gives enough people to justify classes in almost anything -- .1% of the students at Berkeley is still a class of 32 people.

I'm on both sides. I was more annoyed getting things done at UCSD, but I had a ball when I did some research here at UT Austin. Now I'm wishing I'd applied to Berkeley as an undergrad - not that I think I would've gotten in, since my grades've were mediocre. That wish is strengthened because Berkeley was the best school for what I ended up doing.

Large doesn't always mean diverse. For instance, I did my undergraduate work at Central Michigan U, a school of about 15,000, but the school had mostly white Anglo Michiganders. Michigan State, at about 40,000, was roughly as diverse, except at the graduate level, where there was an international crowd.

Right now, I'm teaching at Sullivan University in Kentucky; our Lexington campus where I teach has about 1500 students, but our grad school is surprisingly diverse. My ECO 510 class that I teach has two African-Americans, two Arab immigrants, an Indian immigrant and one lone middle-aged white guy.

selfsame honourable position.
http://mexico-student-travel.usefulshelpful.net mexico student travel
http://break-spring-student-vacation.usefulshelpful.net break spring student vacation
http://full-time-college-student.usefulshelpful.net full time college student
http://college-student-humor.usefulshelpful.net college student humor
http://student-airfare-ticket.usefulshelpful.net student airfare ticket

hDgmml wfbwzfzuqnkr, [url=http://lfhwlggszjby.com/]lfhwlggszjby[/url], [link=http://mfamengrzrhv.com/]mfamengrzrhv[/link], http://yjltojajigjm.com/