CU is working hard to provide the best education for its students, but in a large public university, it can be difficult to satisfy everyone.
According to Princeton Review, CU-Boulder has an undergraduate enrollment of 27,069 students, and despite the large number, a student faculty ratio of 18:4:1.
That number may be true for some classes, which could have just 15 students, but there are also lecture halls that hold upward of 400 people, such as Chem 140, where a professor needs to speak with a microphone and sometimes needs four to five teaching assistants.
But according to CU’s Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis, 31 percent of the fall undergraduate classes in 2009 had between 10-19 students, while only 6 percent had more than 100 students.
These numbers, along with the 1,392 full-time instructional faculty employed as of fall 2009, support the Princeton Review claim of the faculty-to-student ratio.
But some students say they still have mixed feelings about the attention they are receiving.
Thomas Lee, an 18-year-old freshman and English, philosophy and chemistry triple major, said he is satisfied with the professors he’s had so far.
“Yeah, I think I am [getting the attention], my professors are rather knowledgeable, and they usually know what they are talking about,” Lee said.
Kylie Greene, a 20-year-old junior sociology major, said she believes the larger classes make it hard for her personal needs to be met.
“I do [get attention], except when I’m in really, really big lectures,” Greene said. “Then I think it’s hard to get a lot of the information we need because it’s so big and broad.”
Some students also had different responses regarding the teaching assistants and recitations that some classes provide.
“Sometimes [TAs] don’t know what they are talking about,” Lee said.
Greene, however, said she thought recitations were beneficial whereas lectures were not.
“I think recitations were a really good idea,” Greene said. “But I think the lectures absolutely not.”
According to the CU website, in the 2009-2010 year there were 3,240 first-time, first-year enrolled in-state students who were full-time and 2,285 out-of-state students.
Though the enrollment numbers may be similar, the expenses were not.
The in-state tuition for first-year students was $6,446 in 2009, up from $5,922 in 2008. But tuition was $26,700 for out-of-state students in 2009, which is also up from $25,400 in 2008, according to the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis.
To help with the cost, $51,199,415 need-based and $16,873,852 non-need based scholarships and grants were given to CU students in 2008, according to the website.
Despite those numbers, some students said they had mixed reactions on financial aid.
Alex Hansen, a 20-year-old junior biochemistry and philosophy major, said he thinks the university is good about providing financial aid.
“Absolutely, actually I’ve got quite a bit of federal money so I’m actually not paying for any of it, technically,” Hansen said. “But where I am responsible for it, I feel it’s par.”
Lee said he’s known a different experience.
“I guess [it’s okay],” he said. “One of my friends got screwed over with financial aid.”
Both Greene and Hansen said they feel that, partially because of finances, the responsibility of making sure students are educated falls more on the professors and the school, than individual students.
“I think that if I’m paying a certain amount of money to go here, it’s the school’s responsibility to provide enough teachers and staff for us,” Greene said. “Independently it’s our responsibility as well to do well in class. But it’s hard when the classes are so big.”
“[The education falls] more on the professors and lectures more than me, myself,” Hansen said.
Despite the concerns, Greene provided a possible solution to the problems within the university.
“I think that lectures shouldn’t be allowed to be 500 people,” she said. “I think it’s just kind of ridiculous and it’s just way too broad and way to hard to get close to your professor, especially when there is no recitation connected with those classes.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Isa Jones at Alexandra.i.jones@colorado.edu.
