Academic Review of UVM

The following is an computer-generated summary of the video transcript.

So to start off, we have three different size classes offered here at the university. We have our lecture style classes, which are 82 200 students, and those are usually reserved for bigger introductory classes. Like last year, my lecture style classes, where my intro biology class and my intro chemistry class. Then what's really nice about those classes is that once a week outside of the classroom, there are extra time with either the TA or a professor that has, um, that is like a smaller lab style. For example, in my biology and chemistry classes, I had a lab once a week that had 20 students with the t A. And that is a really, really great, um, experience tohave because even though you have the larger lecture style classes where you may feel more intimidated to ask questions and class or stuff like that, I know I personally. Um, first of all, all the professors do a really great job at making the class still feel small, and you can really make it what you want. It's really whatever works for your learning styles, but I think UVM does a really great job in the faculty here. Do a really great job but not making the lecture style classes feel too large. Especially, really, like those breakout times throughout the week with a t A. To be able to learn more about the course and kind of have, ah, little bit more of an intimate experience of people in your class, and I've actually found them. We had just all transition to being online, and it was really fresh for all of us, and I was worried about how that was going to affect my scores within my chemistry exams, and I express express this to my lab ta and he was absolutely amazing. So that was just really, really great toe have that resource available to me. UVM has really challenged my preconceived notions of what I thought I liked in education because that's all I knew so I thought I was gonna hate lecture style classes. I was really nervous about it, and I actually love them. So now my science classes air starting to become a little bit smaller, and then we have our seminar style classes, which are typically humanities classes that could be anywhere from like 5 to 20 students. For example, I'm in the honors college and all of my honors college classes are the small seminar style classes. As someone who is more stem oriented and who is really worried about having to take a seminar style class with the topic being humanities and knowing that I would have to participate in class and really engage with the material, I have also really loved the balance that I've been able to have my schedule. That's something that's so great a lot of people ask, you know, how many classes am I gonna have? Um, you know, with lecture And how Maney am I gonna have with seminar in traditional, you know, is my whole experience just gonna be seminar style classes like, What is it going to be? And what's great is that you bm gives you a mix of everything. So my first year I had to lecture one traditional and one seminar style class, and this semester I have a similar mix of having some larger classes and some smaller classes, and I've really found that it balances out really well. Then as you get older and you find what you like more than you can start to choose classes that have those specific sizes. With another grad population of 10,000 students, I think that this is a really, really great number toe Have you don't feel too big or like the school doesn't feel too big. Classes don't feel too big that you feel like you're just kind of lost in a sea of numbers. 98% of our classes are taught by full time faculty, and then 2% are either top by th or visiting professors talking specifically about my experience here as a biology major, I have absolutely loved all the coursework that I've taken. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to minor in. So within my first year, I took the traditional chemistry biology classes that I've absolutely loved. Um, Professor Don Stratton, I had for my biology biology classes. I also had math like calculus and statistics, but I was like, I want to really explore what other options I have for mine. I never taken a gender studies class before, so I was like, I don't really see how I would be interested in this or how it would relate to what I'm, you know, preparing for for medical school. I was like, Wow, this is something that I really want to continue to study. I think that that just shows how easy it is for you to really explore every single interest that you have and to not feel like the university is holding you back with having the passion of being a math major in art minor. Um, just a really great job at stimulating her academic curiosity in as many fields as possible. Um, it also shows, I think how coming to the University of Mont can really expand what you thought you knew about the world and, you know, really challenged the preconceived notions that you've had. I didn't think I would like gender studies. Here I am now taking gender studies classes every semester, absolutely loving it, wanting toe, having a minor in it and really knowing that I'm going thio, um, use the information that I learned in class not on Lee in, um, the real world. I can already see myself applying what I'm learning in class to how I interact with others, but also in my future profession as hopefully like a medical professional, I can really see a lot of the lessons that I learned in the classes being so essential to the work that I would be doing in the medical field. So I think that that just shows how great you bm does at making students really just explore whatever they want and find passions kind of where you might least expect it specifically talking about the science programs here at the university. So it's really great to see those connections between lecture and then riel world experiences and then to talk a little bit about how Cove it and the pandemic has impacted my classroom experience. Despite all of the circumstances and alterations that have had to be made, I have absolutely loved all the online classes that I'm that I'm in. I'm still able to, um, I feel like I am sitting in the classroom and the chat function actually, within the Microsoft teams, which is a platform that used for online classes, is really great because we're able. So it's really great to see kind of how the university has adapted and how all the professors and faculty here have done a great job at adapting to the new circumstances but still not feeling like we lost anything within our education, for example, in my biology lab, because our bio lab is fully online, we're learning how to code using our which and which, from what I understand, kind of isn't something that they went into great depth in the past, but now because everything online, they're giving us the opportunity to now learn how to code and our which is something that I had absolutely no idea how to do. It's really still very pertinent to being able to do research and laboratory reports. It's still making me feel like I'm engaged with my classes, that I'm not just kind of doing everything on my own and that my professors aren't really there.