Eta. This is in NZ. And yes I know the movies aren't accurate but I get the impression that there is a lot more hand holding in a US college. A NZ first year lecture could have more than 300 students. Lecturers come in, talk for 50 minutes and walk out. There are exceptions but most first year classes have little interaction and if you don't take responsibility you fail (and a lot of bright kids, away from home for the first time and just legally able to drink di fail).
This will vary completely depending on which college or university you attend. Large state universities are like this (like UC Berkeley, UT and other schools with enormous undergrad populations). Those schools, it is not uncommon for undergrads to be taught by TAs rather than professors.
Many smaller liberal arts colleges have smaller classes - the one I attended had probably 30-40 students for the large intro classes but for the more advanced courses like some of the STEM classes and the more obscure classes, the class could range from 12 to even as few as 5-6 students. However, even in these smaller schools, there is not as much "hand-holding" as people may think - it was a shock for some of my classmates who were so used to have parents and guidance counselors monitor their progress all semester to suddenly have to realize that for some classes, their *whole* grade depends on midterm paper/final and final paper and/or exam (and some classes had both final paper and exam). But the smaller liberal arts schools such as the one I attended was focused more on teaching than research (at least when I attended) so if you wanted to really get into a subject, the professors were eager to support your curiousity. I remember many times when my favorite CS teacher would randomly call a quick "class" after hours, when he saw a few of us confused over some materials he had presented. But I would not call that hand holding but rather being in an environment that engages with the students.
It really depends on which school you pick.
