When it comes to class sizes, there's nothing new at the top: Ec 10 and First Nights remain the largest undergraduate classes at Harvard.
Social Analysis 10, "The Principles of Economics," which is taught by Baker Professor of Economics Martin S. Feldstein '61 leads with 808 undergraduates.
Compared to last year's enrollment of 912, Ec 10 has lost some 100 students but the course still remains the largest at the College.
The Office of the Core has found a solution for those who do not appreciate taking notes on their knees in Sanders Theatre: The lectures are now available on tape.
In fact, some students have chosen to attend regular courses which overlap with the Ec 10 lectures, choosing to watch the lectures on videotape outside of class.
The second biggest class is Literature and Arts B-51, "First Nights: Five Performances Premieres," taught by Professor of Music Thomas F. Kelly '70. First Nights has also registered quite a substantial decrease, dropping from 722 to 670 students.
With 427 students enrolled, the third largest class is Science B-29, "Human Behavioral Biology," popularly referred to as "Sex." In order to limit the class size, course heads decided to lottery the popular core.
Not far behind, Literature and Arts A-22, "Poems, Poets, Poetry" attracted 414 students. Taught by Porter University Professor Helen H. Vendler '60, the class attracted so many students at its second meeting that some could not fit in the classroom in Sever Hall.
When Vendler asked the class who was "absolutely sure" about taking the class, virtually every hand in the room went up.
"We had to change classrooms. We went from [Sever] to another building...Even there, not all of us found a place, some of us had to stand in the aisle," said David M. Ross '02, a student in the class.
"There are only seven or eight sections, so even in the sections there will be some 50 students," Ross said.
The fifth largest class was Afro-American Studies 10, "Introduction to Afro-American Studies" taught by Professor of Afro-American Studies Cornel R. West '74. West's course drew in 398 students this year.
Morton J. Horwitz '67, Warren Professor of American Legal History, capped the student population of Historical Study B-61, "The Warren Court and the Pursuit of Justice," at 353.
"I feel unfortunate," said Sarah E. Griswold '01, who did not make it past the course's lottery.
"I had two of my classes lotteried, I only got into one," Griswold said. "I think this is a larger problem...Half the people Vivian M. Song '02 faired better, making itinto The Warren Court. "Even though I was lucky I think the lotteryidea is bad," Song said. "If you want to get intoa course the school should accommodate that." Literature and Arts C-14, "The Concept of Heroin Greek Civilization" taught by Gregory Nagy,Jones Professor of classical Greek literatureranked seventh this year. Nagy's course has risenthe most in attendance this year, from 254students last year to 344 this year. The size of the College's eighth largest class,General Education 105, "The Literature of SocialReflection," has increased more than 30 percent to307 students. The course is taught by AgeeProfessor of Social Ethics Robert Coles '50. Chemistry 5, Mathematics 21a and ComputerScience 50 are the ninth, tenth and eleventhlargest classes respectively at 293, 284 and 280students.
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