Organic Chemistry, a pre-med requirement, is the largest class on campus with 546 current students.

Large classes counter Hopkins's 12:1 student/teacher ratio

By: Neil Manimala

Posted: 10/9/08

Sophomore Anne Kirwan wakes up each morning to the buzzing of an alarm clock only to sit through the similar buzzing of her professor in her Orgo class.

The droning of chemical reactions and clacking of chalk on blackboard is amplified only by the echoes of her large lecture hall. As she treks across campus to her Biochemistry midterm, she knows she is not alone in her misery.

This semester, Organic Chemistry I is the biggest class on campus with a total of 546 students registered.

The next three biggest classes are Biochemistry with 400 students, Elements of Macroeconomics with 396 students and General Biology I plus Workshop with 345 students total.

Hopkins's 12:1 student ratio seems paltry when compared to Harvard's 7:1 student-teacher ratio and Duke's 8:1 student-teacher ratio.

Five percent of all Hopkins classes had over 100 students while 0.5 percent of Harvard classes had over 100 students.

While its student-teacher ratio fares better than the University of Maryland's 19:1, Hopkins still has some large introductory classes and major requirements like Organic Chemistry.

"It is intimidating because there are so many other people you know you have to compete with for the normalization and curve," Kirwan said.

"There is no student-teacher interaction unless you're one of those students who answers all the questions."

Over the years, the administration has made some efforts to either reduce class sizes or alleviate the adverse effects of larger classes.

One effort was to simply cap registration in some classes or split the one single class between two professors.

The latter is currently being done with Organic Chemistry this semester.

"Our Orgo class had like 700 people in our freshman year," junior Liny John said.

Another strategy to lower the effects of some large classes is the section system in which students in a class are split into numerous sections of about 15 students each led by a teaching assistant (TA). Some students have found the sections extremely beneficial.

"I learn a lot more in Calc section than I learn in Calc lecture because the Calc lecture is so big; I can't ask questions," freshman Steven Qian said. "I feel [that] especially for math, you need small classes because if you don't understand the fundamentals, you won't understand the future topics."

Kirwan agrees that some subjects require more focus than is provided in a more detached large class.

"I'm okay with large classes for intro courses but classes like Biochem and Orgo need small classes to learn the concepts."

The limited number of classrooms on campus, however, may provide sizable hurdles to achieving a goal of small class sizes.

Large classes often present a difficult task to the Registrar's scheduling desk as they assign lecture halls for the course and numerous rooms for the sections.

"The scheduling on this campus is always a challenge. The challenges vary from year to year. The biggest challenge this year was the closing of Gilman Hall," Todd Bullock of the Registrar's scheduling desk said.

Those students without large major requirements and intro classes enjoy the benefits of active class discussions and even seminar-style meetings.

"I'm a classics major. I don't have a class with more than 15 people in it. I like being in really small classes because I get to know the professor, and a lot of my classes are discussion-based, so it's easier to see what's going on," freshman Rose Schneider said.

Not all students have a problem with large classes though. Much of the material in intro classes is a review of subjects covered in high school and previous courses, so the need for increased teacher-student interaction is minimized.

"My Physics, Chemistry and Bio classes are big. They're all really easy so I don't really need teachers. Sections are just as easy," freshman Jeffrey Lio said.

"I think morning classes should be really big so we could sleep," freshman Sruthi Sakamuri said.

While too many classes with over 100 students may not be favorable, the number of large courses may be left at a healthy minimum.

"The overall goal is to offer as many courses as possible and have a diverse range of offerings rather than only focusing on the size of the classes," Bullock said.

For students like Kirwan, that may mean many more mornings of yawn-filled notetaking in the midst of hundreds of others students.

In terms of comparing class sizes with those at competing schools such as Harvard and Duke, Bullock noted that it is more important for students to focus on the quality of the courses than on the number of peers in each class.