With an enrollment limited to 16 students, each class has a more topical, narrow focus than traditional courses, with titles such as Fictions of Female Development, Place and American Culture, and Poetry, Place and Landscape. You learned how to use tools, how to synthesize. You became a scholar, an innovator. Now that process occurs much earlier, certainly well into the undergraduate curriculum. All of our courses, including the introductory courses, are increasingly designed to promote this discovery aspect.
Classes are smaller now, especially in the laboratory.
They're equipped with instrumentation and the modern tools of science, an inventory that runs into many millions of dollars. This instruction is exceedingly expensive and often requires individual mentorship with faculty. Although much more labor intensive and a source of considerable stress, a discovery-based undergraduate experience is practically required for students to be accepted at competitive medical or graduate schools, Benzing said. Active learning is an increase of labor, but is far worth it in the end. This trend will also further distance colleges from universities.