Michigan State University Top Questions

A lot of the underclassmen courses are HUGE lectures... and typically the professor won't know your name. But the great thing is that once you reach the higher level courses and truly start focusing on your degree, the class sizes get smaller. Many of my classes are discussion based and close ties are made with other students in the class. Some of my greatest classes were my Women's Studies courses. These foster many intellectual conversations outside of the classroom for me and many of my classmates.

While the College of Education is deemed the #1 in the nation, it's undergrad program is far from it. This #1 title is regarding their Graduate programs and definitely does not include its undergraduate one. In the undergraduate program, expect to be continuously on the verge of a meltdown. The COE does not pay attention to individual student's needs (i.e. what grade level we are interested in when giving us placements in the schools) and the classes vary widely depending on the teacher. There are definitely some phenomenal instructors such as Cindy Covell and Jeanine Stanaway but there are also terrible ones who seem to be senile, spiteful, forgetful, just trying to bide their time until full retirement. The program focuses too much on theory and not enough on practice--it is completely unrealistic to write a 17-page single spaced lesson plan for a 1 hour lesson!

I think that classes at MSU are very comparable to other universities. They are typical college courses....some professors know your name while others haven't a clue, some classes you have to study for hours for while others are easy 4 points. It all depends on the class, professor, and situation. Most students study very frequently and the MSU library is always busy open 24 hours. The best classes I ever took was the French Art class and the Teaching with Technology class. I really enjoyed them, they were interesting and the grading/course load was reasonable. For the most part students are not competitive with each other and rather work together to help each other achieve which makes for a great learning community.