University of Utah Top Questions

- The U is BIG, compared to smaller, private liberal arts schools. Outsiders may complain that it's so big, that you don't get any contact with the professor/instructor. But it's the very opposite that is true. If you approach your professor at the end of class or during his office hours and you show him how interested you're in his class, not only will he know your name, he will care a lot about you. Besides, for example my in Chem class tehre are about 200+ students. But it has been split up into approx. 30-people discussion groups which meet at different scheduled times during the week for quizzes and to review the hw. A T.A. is assigned to a couple DG's and when they meet, the T.A. is in close contact w/teh fewer students, thus making it easier on both him AND us to comprehend the topic and get less intimidated when asking questions. - Class participation is NOT required (only a few classes mandate it), but some professors definitely go out of their way to make it seem so. Some may provide incentives that make it less "tempting" for us to miss class. Again in my Chem class AND DG meetings, for example, I get to have 1 lowest test score + 2 lowest quiz scores dropped ONLY IF I miss less than 3 classes of each. On the other hand, a few classes are so small (~20 people) that the instructor is pratically mandated to regulate attendance.