In commenting on the latest US News rankings of colleges, I noted that state research universities like Illinois and Texas are ranked with or below schools that have much weaker faculties. But I also noted that such schools are big, which often counts against the undergraduate experience. And then I posed the question whether their bigness really meant the undergraduate experience was inferior to schools with less distinguished faculties.
Illinois undergraduate Lucas Wiman writes in response with one perspective:
"I'm an Illinois mathematics student...I transferred from Illinois State University in fall 2003, and I've taken 10 classes here (4 of which were graduate courses). The graduate courses were wonderful and fascinating, and I learned quite a bit from them. Taking graduate courses was my goal in coming here, so the school has certainly improved my undergraduate education enormously. However, it did so by way of its excellent graduate program. The undergraduate
courses have been jokes. Enormous lecture halls, ridiculous assignments, easy tests. In an Asian literature course, I got a B without reading any of the assigned reading, and going to class 50% of the time. There have been 3 courses in which I only went to tests and got A's. I've heard that in CS courses, 60% is typically curved up to an A. That was indeed the case in one CS course that I took, and people still complained about how difficult the course was. One could even write 'I don't know' to any question and get 25% credit.
"The truth about this school is that the undergraduate program is little more than a bureaucratic requirement. The resources are certainly there--if you were to go to class regularly, do all the assigned readings, and work hard on your own, you could get a decent education. But that is true at all universities, including community colleges. Here there is nothing in grades which substantially reflects learning, and since most students don't care about anything but their grades, little learning actually takes place."
I've opened comments, and invite other perspectives, especially from undergraduate students or graduates of state research universities. (Faculty are, of course, welcome to comment as well.) Is Mr. Wiman's report typical of the undergraduate experience at places like Illinois? Please do not post anonymously and identify who you are (e.g., faculty member at Illinois, student at Wisconsin, etc.).
UPDATE: Many very interesting comments posted below--if you've read this far, do read the comments. Thanks to all who have posted as well.
