[moab]

These kind of prognostications /opinions are easily falsifiable by talking to your coworkers that went to other universities. Most of the top-25 schools have upper-div CS classes that are nothing like what you're taking about, with both faculty and TAs putting in enormous effort to make sure that courses are accessible and intellectually stimulating.

[mulcahey]

I went to a top 25 CS school. Half my upper div lectures had ~5% attendance.

[moab]

Strikes me as very anomalous. 5% attendance? Anyway, bad idea to draw conclusions from one university…