University of Miami Top Questions

large class sizes, rigorous courses

None bigger than 160 kids. Comm school is not that hard. Business school has great teachers. Nothing is too difficult that I took.

Fall 2011, I took an English class on Russian Literature. My teacher was so knowledgeable about Russian culture and he knew the language and pronunciations as well. Everyday, we'd have a discussion about the book. Students were able to freely give their thoughts and ideas about how they felt and sometimes there'd be "light" heated arguments. But it was all good! I also took a few TAL (Teaching and Learning) classes. For the most part, I learned about teaching students english. I learned strategies on how to teach vocabulary. It was a very informative class because knowing how I was taught, and now knowing these strategies, I think I will be a better teacher.

Most of my classes are small, the teacher gets to pay individual attention to the students and that's good. Depending on what you take it can be boring. The teachers are all very knowledgeable of the subject they are teaching though.

My classes are all really different, but the one thing I can say about them for sure is that the professors are incredible. Maybe I've just been lucky (and RateMyProfessor.com really is a godsend), but all in all I think that that's just the quality of the teaching faculty here. Being in the humanities (I'm an English Lit/French/Journalism triple major) all of my classes are small. To date, I've only had one class be over 50 (and it was an elective that I took because I loved the professor). Usually the classes are all well under 30 students, which is an incredible since this has been the case since my first semester freshman year. Classes have very open, friendly environments. Professors encourage participation and really challenge us to think. My one complaint is that students aren't as engaged as they could be. Not everyone participates in class, which is a shame because it adds so much when they do. Many do though, and it makes those classes awesome.

My classes are all really different, but the one thing I can say about them for sure is that the professors are incredible. Maybe I've just been lucky (and RateMyProfessor.com really is a godsend), but all in all I think that that's just the quality of the teaching faculty here. Being in the humanities (I'm an English Lit/French/Journalism triple major) all of my classes are small. To date, I've only had one class be over 50 (and it was an elective that I took because I loved the professor). Usually the classes are all well under 30 students, which is an incredible since this has been the case since my first semester freshman year. Classes have very open, friendly environments. Professors encourage participation and really challenge us to think. My one complaint is that students aren't as engaged as they could be. Not everyone participates in class, which is a shame because it adds so much when they do. Many do though, and it makes those classes awesome.

Most of my classes are pretty relaxed, but it really depends on the teacher. For example, I took a Geology class this semester with a teacher that was really relaxed, gave interesting PowerPoints and talked about current events. I also took Human Evolution, in which the teacher was a really tough grader and gave some time-consuming assignments. I also took a Spanish course, and two anthropology courses. Some of the anthropology classes are pretty cool and well worth taking the gen eds for. For example, this semester I took "Sex & Culture" and "Gender & Language". I mean who thought that there was a science behind sex positions?

I'm currently taking Spanish 101, Shakespeare, and Criminology as well as getting credit for an anthropology internship through the Audobon House in Key West and for being a teaching assistant for Forensic Anthropology I. Criminology is my biggest class at 25 students. I really like my Spanish and criminology classes, the professors are excellent. My English professor is really obnoxious and not very helpful so he really makes it hard to enjoy the class. I love that I can get credit for doing an internship on campus. I get to analyze and catalog the bone material and ceramics found on the last archaeological dig conducted at the Audobon House in Key West. I also get credit for being a teaching assistant for a class that I took last year; unfortunately, it doesn't count towards my GPA.

So i'm currently taking Finance, Marketing, Spanish and Management. All of the courses are interesting to me, mostly Marketing and Finance. Spanish is pretty much an easy A because its the first "101" Spanish. Finance however is a very difficult and competitive class and atmosphere, so be prepared. Marketing is not as competitive and is a more laid back atmosphere compared to Finance. Management is exactly like psychology expect with business settings.

My classes have mostly been comprised of a professor who stands next to a computer, flips through slides, and reads off of them as he goes. My favorite thing...these are the professors that yell at you for reading from he slides when you do a presentation!