What does section size mean? Forum

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cotiger

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What does section size mean?

Post by cotiger » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:32 am

I was looking at the updated stats for T14 schools and was wondering what section size means. From brief searches it seems like it might mean your 1L class sizes? I'm having trouble accepting that Stanford has 30 person 1L classes while similarly-sized Chicago has 93 person classes. Is that actually true, or am I misinterpreting it?

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sublime

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by sublime » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:39 am

..

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Robb

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by Robb » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:41 am

It is a bit strange... Based on this Stanford seems to have a similar system to Chicago of dividing the class into 30-person LRW sections, then having classes that combine 3 of the sections.

It's self-reported, so schools might be interpreting the meaning of section differently, as sublime suggests.

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rinkrat19

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by rinkrat19 » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:44 am

As the other person said, it'll vary a bit how schools do it, but generally the 1L class is divided up into equal sections, and you take all your big doctrinal 1L classes with your section. At NU we take the six standard doctrinal subjects with our full 60+ section, and CLR with approx half of our section (I think there were actually 9 CLR classes formed from 4 full sections, so do the math).

Someone else can speak for UChicago specifically, but I assume there are schools that have 90-person lectures.

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ScottRiqui

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by ScottRiqui » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:51 am

I think the link in the OP is listing the "small section" size for some schools, and the "combined" section size for others. The ABA data for Cornell says that "section size" was 102 in 2012, but that there was also a "small section" of 34.

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cotiger

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by cotiger » Sun Feb 23, 2014 2:15 am

Thanks for all your helpful responses! :)

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johnnyquest

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by johnnyquest » Tue May 27, 2014 6:35 am

Does anyone know how they choose the students in the sections? Do they try to get a range of different uGPAs and LSATs? Or is it random?

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WhiteyCakes

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by WhiteyCakes » Tue May 27, 2014 8:13 am

johnnyquest wrote:Does anyone know how they choose the students in the sections? Do they try to get a range of different uGPAs and LSATs? Or is it random?
Random unless we are talking about a TTT that section stacks

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First Offense

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Re: What does section size mean?

Post by First Offense » Tue May 27, 2014 9:42 am

Another anecdote - UVA has ~12 sections of around 30 students each. You generally take LRW and one doctrinal class with just that section, then the other doctrinal classes with one or two other sections (so you'll have one class with 30, 1-3 with 60, and normally not more than 1 with 90+LRW).

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