Ohio State University-Main Campus Top Questions

Professors of lectures do not actually spend time to really know who's who.

When you start out as a Freshman classes can take some adjusting to the large lecture halls and the impersonal atmosphere. But most of the professors are willing and want to meet you. If you go to office hours or talk to the professors after class they are more than happy to get to know you. As you get into upper level classes, the class size begins to get smaller and more personal. Ohio State has a very competitive atmosphere and with students from all over the country and different backgrounds it is a great place to strive. There is a variety of classes to choose from and it allows you to form the curriculum you want to take.

Since there are so many classes each quarter, it is impossible to characterize them all. I have the typical evil, uncaring, miserly professor who refuses to give an A, but much more often I have had professors who really care about my education. They put a ton of work into finding great material for our class, and are willing to talk about their research or your academic interests any time.

Most professors in the general classes like chemistry 101, biology, or physics do not know your name because the classes are so big. Your TA knows your name and they can help you a lot. Also, even though the professor doesn't know your name, that doesn't mean they aren't going to help you.

Once you are into your major program yes they do! My favorite class was either Sport for the Spectator with Coach Tressel or Allied Med 601- Death and Dying. Least favorite- by far, BioAcoustics. Well, depends on your courses and major. I would at least an hour everyday for each class. Not so much in lecture but that's what recitation is for. I did just because my job required my classroom knowledge, but I would assume others probably talked about their respective learining as well. I never really noticed but then again my major was 98{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} female, so there was some definite cattiness. Most decidely- Sport for the Spectator, not only was it taught by the head football coach but was an awesome way to get an easy A. My major is Speech and Hearing, it is in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It is an extremely well developed program- it's ranked within the top 20 in the country. I did spend some time with professors outside of the classroom but only because I worked at the Rehabilitation Hospital at the Medical Center, and several of the Speech Therapists I wroked with also taught classes. Well, there are fair some of the requirements are slightly ridiculous but I understand why they are in place. Depends upon the program you decide on, some programs are strictly for the sake of learning but if you find the right one, you learn the necessary information and understand what it means to have a job in that field.

I've grown to feel at home at OSU, though so much attention goes to science, research and SPORTS that being a double major in music and English can feel a little alienating. The lack of funding and attention from the community toward the College Arts really pisses me off, especially now that I've seen what amazing talent we have here. However, that's what happens when you're at a public university instead of a liberal arts school; though we are every bit as good as Capital University on the other side of town, people assume we aren't and therefore don't really pay attention. I'm in an organization that is working on that money issue, and hopefully one day we will be well-funded and the stigma will go away. Now that I'm off my soap box, though, one great thing about classes is that there are so many. Sometimes I feel we have to take too many GECs (seriously, statistics and plant biology for a B.A. in music?), though the variety of classes offered makes certain requirements more bearable. You can also take lots of "fun classes" - every dance style is offered, for example, as a course for credit (read: easy A). I feel like professors in most fields try to get to know their students as much as they can, and like any other school there are good ones as well as bad. The ones who are not so great usually are unapproachable because they subscribe to the school's emphasis on research and focus on their careers (like publishing for "important" scholarly journals), or they are just plain bad teachers. The others however, are down to earth and usually have a sense of humor. Because of the size of the university, there are lots of GTAs who teach introductory courses, though my experience with graduate students has often been as good (or even better than) my experiences with professors.

One of the great things about Ohio State is that you don't really feel like you're competing with the other students in your classes. By and large, your fellow students are more than willing to work together on homework or study together for a test. The professors at Ohio State are great about making time for students. They're more than happy to answer questions during class, after lecture, during office hours, or by e-mail. One of my professors even gave out her cell phone number the last week of class, in case we had questions over the weekend while we were studying for the final.

OSU's education in teaching and learning was great--more interaction b/w students & professors.

-some professors are good with names in smaller classes, others will ask you every day what your name is; in lecture classes, they don't particularly care what you call yourself -I have yet to take a class that I enjoy; most of them are dull and I feel like I've taken the same 3 English classes over and over again because they all cover the same material -studying habits depend on the student -class participation is not something most teachers force, so unless it's a controversial topic, there are a limited number of students who always have something to say -from conversations one overhears walking across campus, intellectual stimulation is reserved for the classroom -it seems that most students just want to do what they have to in order to graduate, and they don't particularly care how they rank against everyone else...sports are a different matter -I don't have time to take the fun, unique classes if I want to graduate before I die -I'm an English major, which requires 60 hours of English classes...what a shame that one of the largest departments have 30 classes that all cover the same periods, authors, and works. It's a great use of my 4 years and $12,000. -seeing professors outside of class is painful -the academic requirements at OSU are ridiculous: as an English major I'm required to take 4 different science classes, a 2 class sequence of either bio or physics, one class of whichever one isn't your sequence, and then another science just for the fun of it...what is that? -OSU is all about wasting its students' time learning useless material over and over again so they can take our money.

Being that OSU is such a large school and Psychology being one of the more prevalent majors, I have fallen victim to classes where my professor never knew my name. When you are in a general 100 level class that most every student has the option to take, you will run into classes with hundreds of students. Given this, I would never expect a professor to learn everyone's name. However, I have found that if you take advantage of office hours, the professors are more then welcoming and make it a point to get to know you, your name, and will recognize you during class. If you make it a point to stand out, you will. OSU is competitive and there are a lot of intelligent, motivated, and ambitious students. I look at this as a blessing. Being in such an environment helps me strive and achieve the goals that I set for myself and have allowed for new ones. The real world is a competitive place and getting it first hand before you're expected to deal with such an issue is an advantage every student shouldn't take for granted. I feel that I have been prepared to handle life after graduation, and not just in the academic sense. College is the best place to help prepare you for work, but also helps you grow and mature into the person that you always knew you could be.