University of Missouri-Columbia Top Questions

The academics are tough but classes are doable, but some advice take match classes of campus.

The teachers are fantastic! A lot of times students will say their professors don't teach the information correctly, but those are probably the students that skip class a lot. All of the professors I have had thus far have been very helpful to me. You get good quality education, but you do have to work for it.

Mizzou offers excellent academic opportunities. Everything here is very competitive in a way that keeps students motivated to do their best.

The academics at Mizzou are more like you are what you make it. Freshman and Sophomore year since Mizzou is a larger public institution you can get lost in the crowd inless you make yourself known and present. It makes you become very self sufficient. Mizzou is not at all like, "I'm your professor and I will hold your hand through these next 4 years". They are nice people, but you have to make yourself known and use your own voice to be heard. Then they will gladly write you that recommendation letter you need for graduate school.

Everyone's academic experience is different. Your experience will depend on your personality. The more people you interact with the larger pool you'll have when i comes time for recommendations, study groups, and whatever else you'll need help with. The teachers are very friendly and are willing to help you, if you ask. The love for you to visit during their office hours...they need some company! My favorite classes are the ones heavily centered around discussion. They are usually much more relaxed and students tend to perform better in them if they attend class, do homework, and participate. Class participation importance varies from professor to professor. You may have classes that take daily attendance, and some that do not. There is a wide variety of courses that you can take during your time here, and you don't have to be a student of that particular department/ school to be successful in it.

We pride ourselves in our academics!

The University of Missouri has an average ACT score of 25.7, with that score rising every year. Academics are important and students work hard for their grades. The library is open until 2AM and students utilize that. As a freshman and sophomore you will be mostly enrolled in classes that are large lectures. But those large lectures break down into small discussions once a week to go over material in a smaller group (10-20 people). All professors are required to have office hours and are more than able to meet with students even outside of those. I visit each one of my professors outside of class to just let them know who I am and that I have an interest in their subject. The academic requirements and competitiveness of Mizzou keep students engaged and interested in their studies. The University of Missouri is very focused on future careers of their Tigers, with future employment opportunities popping up everywhere.

At first, class sizes can be out of this world scary. Your typical freshman level lecture style class can have an upwards of 500 students! Never fear, for the further you get along in your major, the smaller your classes get. Professors love when students come to talk to them during office hours, so take advantage of that free time! They always remember a student who comes to their office. At Mizzou you can get anything you want out of your education. There's so many different departments to choose from and there's even a major dedicated to creating your own major! The academic requirements center around getting a well rounded education, so at the end of your stay at MU you will have interacted with all the different fields of study in some way. It's great because you get a chance to take classes like Magic and Religion (which is all Harry Potter all the time) or 16 and Pregnant; yes, those courses count towards graduation! Mizzou is very focused on making sure that the students that graduate are prepared for the real world as well as passionate about their chosen field. There are classes that focus solely on career exploration, be it a specific one (like Exploring Careers in Journalism) or more general. Professors and administration alike want students to get active, be a part of their campus, and be well rounded people. Even though we're big, you won't get lost in the shuffle.

Academics at Mizzou are on par with many top-tier institutions across the country. The school has so many different "Colleges" that there is literally a major for anything that you might want to study. Mizzou is very focused on preparing students for jobs following graduation. This is evident in the internship/externship and Professional Development Program requirements for many majors. The faculty is a fairly good mix of researchers and career teachers, and students tend to be fanatical in their devotion/hatred towards teachers in their College. There are many large lecture classes that must be taken early in your career and in those it is difficult for the professors to know your name. Later courses, such as my Capstone, have as few as 10 students. Because of the competitive nature of many of the programs, students are always studying. While it can be a "party school", you will also find the student center and library full of students studying on any given friday night.

At the University of Missouri, academics vary depending on what department you are in and whether or not you are taking pre-requisites or are started in your sequence. Starting off, during freshman and sophomore year, most classes will probably be large lecture halls, sometimes with as many as 600 students. In classes like this, teachers usually run their classes with lectures and powerpoints. Although 600 students may be overwhelming, teachers offer office hours for additional help, which really helps if you put in the effort to attend them. Also, with some of these bigger lectures, one day a week there will be a discussion portion with one of the Teaching Assistants. These discussions are extremely helpful as you are in a small group of about 20 and are able to discuss the information learned in lecture that week. Regardless of class size though, teachers expect participation from the class and engages with the classroom on a regular basis. After your first two years, usually you are placed in your sequence in the school you apply for. As a journalism student, while some of my classes still are large lectures (200 students now), others are very small. The journalism school is difficult, but classes are very interesting and prepare you for your future jobs. Additionally within the school, there are many resources available to help you with your studies, such as professors and the library. Overall, no matter what the class size, the teachers here at Mizzou definitely are here to teach students and help them learn, and therefore go to great efforts to make sure we get the most we can from their classes.

At the University of Missouri, academics vary depending on what department you are in and whether or not you are taking pre-requistes or are started in your sequence. Starting off, during freshman and sophomore year, most classes will probably be large lecture halls, sometimes with as many as 600 students. In classes like this, teachers usually run their classes with lectures and powerpoints. Although 600 students may be overwhelming, teachers offer office hours for additional help, which really helps if you put in the effort to attend them. Also, with some of these bigger lectures, one day a week there will be a discussion portion with one of the Teaching Assistants. These discussions are extremely helpful as you are in a small group of about 20 and are able to discuss the information learned in lecture that week. Regardless of class size though, teachers expect participation from the class and engages with the classroom on a regular basis. After your first two years, usually you are placed in your sequence in the school you apply for. As a journalism student, while some of my classes still are large lectures (200 students now), others are very small. The journalism school is difficult, but classes are very interesting and prepare you for your future jobs. Additionally within the school, there are many resources available to help you with your studies, such as professors and the library. Overall, no matter what the class size, the teachers here at Mizzou definitely are here to teach students and help them learn, and therefore go to great efforts to make sure we get the most we can from their classes.

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At first it can be kind of intimidating because your Gen Ed classes are usually in lecture halls with 300-500 students. However, as you get more into your major and upper division classes, classes get smaller and you get to have a more personal relationship with your professors. The amount of class participation really begins on the class and the professor. You could be in a class where 15{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of your grade depends on participation, and your next class has nothing about participation. Typically classes have 3-4 tests a semester and all your classes will most likely have tests around the same time. What this means is that everyone on campus has to buckle down and study all week at the same time, and the other weeks of the semester isn't anything more than keeping up with readings for classes. There's not really a lot of daily homework unless you're in language classes or something like that. The amount of time you spend with professors outside of class really depends on the class. Some of my classes I go in to office hours at least twice a week, others I never met with my professors outside of class. The more I get involved with my major, the more I try to make a point to meet with my professors so that i can get to be on a first name basis since they'll be my first connections once I try to get a job. I feel like a lot of classes at Mizzou are geared towards getting a job. Many classes try to give you real world experience. For example, if you're in the journalism school your junior and senior year your class is at the Columbia newspaper or NBC station. So instead of just learning from a book you learn directly in the professional business. For my IT classes we have projects that directly go into our professional portfolio so as soon as we graduate we already have video clips we've edited or songs we've made to show potential employers.

Mizzou is known for the Journalism School. It has been named #1 in the country many times. There are a lot of classes available to students, and a lot of them are lecture halls. Lecture halls usually consist of about 350 students. They are big, and the professor will not know your name unless you put yourself out there. You have to go to the office hours if you have questions. The math and English classes at Mizzou are not in lecture halls, so it easier for a new student to adjust. The departments that are the most successful at Mizzou are Journalism, Engineering, and Communication. After your first few general education classes, the sizes of class gets smaller and your professors will know you. One suggestion is to go to your professor's office hours. This is extremely important for being a successful student at Mizzou.

The intro classes are huge, you will most likely never have the teacher know your name unless you come into office hours. For some people, that's a good thing. For others, not so much. Smaller classes often count on class participation for grades but professors are pretty lax about that. We've got some pretty cool classes like "Harry Potter and Religion" and "The Mathematics of Music" and "The History of Baseball." The academic requirements aren't stringent so you won't have to be studying all the time but it's not a rubber stamped degree either.

Some of my professors know my name but i dont expect them to remember it. My favorite class was mythology and my least favorite was Womens and genders studies. In smaller classes there is participation but people really dont participate in the big lecture classes. I dont really hear students having intellectual conversations outside of the classroom. I dont think that the students are competitive with eachother but they are competitive with themselves because they want to do better than how they did the previous semester. I am a Biology major in the School of Arts and Sciences. I dont spend time with my professors outside of the classroom mainly because either im busy and cant make it to their office hours. I feel that the school academic requirements are good and as long as the student puts forth the effort then it shouldnt be a problem.

Academically, I think Mizzou structures the curriculum in a strategic manner. Freshman year your classes tend to be very large, lecture-based, introductory level classes. As you get older and further into your major, your class sizes increase drastically and aren't just lecture; there is more discussion and interaction within the classroom. The reason I enjoyed this is because like most freshman, I had no idea what I wanted to major in at first. The intro level classes allowed me to get a broad overview of different majors, ultimately helping me figure out that psychology is what I wanted to pursue. The bigger lectures help to build a foundation that allows you to excel in the upper level courses. Additionally, Mizzou is a huge research institution and there are a lot of labs that you can get the the chance to do undergraduate research in. For instance, I began working in a lab my sophomore year and it has aided in preparing me for some of the experiences I will encounter in graduate school. Finally, Mizzou's journalism school is one of the top schools in the country. They teach their students with hands on training, preparing them for real world news. There are very assorted teaching styles at the university allowing students the ability to cater to how they learn best.

Most of your freshman classes are held in big lecture halls, so the teacher's assistants, or TA's, are more likely to know your name. My favorite class was anything in my major, least favorite was biology. The teacher was wonderful, I'm just horrible at biology! Students study double the amount of time you spend in class. So for a three hour course, you should plan on studying for an additional six hours outside of class. Class participation is very common. Professors encourage it, and it definitely helps you learn the material.

Academics at the University of Missouri-Columbia are both challenging and rewarding. Most freshman classes are rather large and usually take place within an auditorium. Unless you introduce yourself to the professor they will not know you by name. My favorite class by far was Mythology because it was easy to follow. My least favorite was english 1000 because of all the writing and overall work. Many of my peers at school study often. Usually before a quiz or test, I've never heard of someone just studying to get the material down. Class participation is depending on the professor and if they give points towards participation. Intellectual conversations aren't frequent outside of the classroom. Competitiveness amongst students is based on how ambitious the student is. I myself am really competitive with other students, but mostly my roommates and friends. The most unique class I've taken is Art Appreciation, which I'm taking this semester. It's something new and outside of the realm of things that I enjoy so i thought I'd broaden my horizons. My major here at Mizzou is journalism. My major is the reason I chose Mizzou, the program is top five in the nation. I personally don't spend much time with professors outside of the classroom. There have been times where I have visited office hours to get a better understanding of course material. The school's academic requirements aren't that difficult for most students to deal with. I believe that they are extremely fair. The education at Mizzou is geared towards setting their students up for the best opportunity to acquire a job as well as create well rounded individuals.

Freshman class are usually large. Professors won't know who you are unless you introduce yourself. This is typical of all colleges. There are some classes to avoid. For example, Microeconomics with Sharon Ryan. Terrible. Grade distribution table on MU's website allows one to gain an understanding of a teachers grading over the years. Check it out. Students are highly competitive. Do your best and don't slack off or you won't get into programs or internships that you want. The requirements to get into MU have gotten stricter since I was a freshman. The school is improving and is starting to be recognized for it. There are career fairs several times a year that help students find a job. Personally, everyone of my graduating friends got jobs within a month or before graduating. 8 of my close friends to be exact. If you work hard, University of Missouri name will strengthen your resume.