What's a good enrollment size for an ideal college experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imo greater than 25,000
They are adults. They are transitioning to the big-wide-world
Universities are geered to this age group and offer unique resources to them, to help them, as long as they seek them out. Again, they are soon to navigate the adult world, on their own and that will be with no hand holding.

Agree this is how the category E school seems/feels. The smaller schools seem to market more of a hand-holding experience. E feels more sink or swim.

[Anonymous]

<5k sounds suffocating

[Anonymous]

Both my kid and I chose the 5-10K size and liked it, while my dh had a great experience at a huge state school. We live in a small town and a LOT of kids end up going to small liberal arts colleges. Anecdotally what I hear from parents is the transition is much easier for those kids and maybe they are happier in the first year or two than the ones who land in larger campuses, but by junior/senior year those schools (especially the remote ones) can feel very small and stifling. But again as everybody has said, it really depends on the kid.

[Anonymous]

< 2000, which I think you meant “A” to be, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:<5k sounds suffocating

Huh, I can understand this about 1kish and under, but 5k?

As I said above, I felt my school was in that Goldilocks not too big, not too small category. We had small classes, got to know our professors, but didn’t know everyone on campus and there were plenty of activities to keep us busy. I also loved the size of the campus-it was idyllic and winds up on many lists of most beautiful campuses.

It is all about fit, obviously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's a good enrollment size for an ideal (social, academic, intellectual, opportunities, career) college experience?

A. > 2,000
B. 2,000 -5,000
C. 5,000-10,000
D. >10,000
E. >25,000

The entire premise of this question indicates you have no clue about this process. There is no right answer here. It’s about individual fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both my kid and I chose the 5-10K size and liked it, while my dh had a great experience at a huge state school. We live in a small town and a LOT of kids end up going to small liberal arts colleges. Anecdotally what I hear from parents is the transition is much easier for those kids and maybe they are happier in the first year or two than the ones who land in larger campuses, but by junior/senior year those schools (especially the remote ones) can feel very small and stifling. But again as everybody has said, it really depends on the kid.

I can see this potetially being the case but most of the kids I know who go to these small schools spend junior year on study abroad and then senior year they enjoy being back on campus to reconnect with friends but are really focused on working with faculty on senior research projects and grad school applications.

My DD is attracted to small schools and one of her favored options right now is closer to 1K which seems really small to me. However, one of the programs she likes there would have her off campus for a full semester and she also likes it for a guaranteed 3-2 master's program at a much larger university (and they do have a good track record of students actually participating in this transfer program which I know is not always the case). So, really she'd only be on campus for 2.5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imo greater than 25,000
They are adults. They are transitioning to the big-wide-world
Universities are geered to this age group and offer unique resources to them, to help them, as long as they seek them out. Again, they are soon to navigate the adult world, on their own and that will be with no hand holding.

Well as they "navigate the adult world" many will find that they prefer working for a different size company than others do. I've worked for the 100K+ companies, 5K and >1K companies. I personally prefer the smaller companies. More personable, you are not just a number, you get better more personalized training (in my experience), better mentors. Something to be said about meeting and knowing the CEO/Exectuive team at a >1K company---that would rarely happen for an entry level person at a larger company. At small companies it does happen and is genuine. My partner is an exec in a small company and pre-covid, they personally stopped by to meet all new hires if they were in the office/not traveling, the day/week they started. Now with WFH, they routinely have "coffee chats" that any employee can drop in virtually and many employees do take advantage of that. They know majority of the ~1K employees.

[Anonymous]

It depends completely on the kid, including personality, major, and what they hope to get out of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both my kid and I chose the 5-10K size and liked it, while my dh had a great experience at a huge state school. We live in a small town and a LOT of kids end up going to small liberal arts colleges. Anecdotally what I hear from parents is the transition is much easier for those kids and maybe they are happier in the first year or two than the ones who land in larger campuses, but by junior/senior year those schools (especially the remote ones) can feel very small and stifling. But again as everybody has said, it really depends on the kid.

Key for many is selecting a 5-10K that is in a city, not remote area. Both my kids have done that. One in a city over 500K (largest in the state and 90 mins from one of 5 largest cities in USA) the other in a city of ~300K so plenty nearby to do that it won't seem isolating. But for my kids, both did not want the 1-3K, as their HS has over 2500 kids and they wanted slightly bigger. Similarly, they both realized that they are not type A extroverts, so would personally do much better with smaller classes and smaller campus and all that a 5-10K college typically offers. My 2nd looked at a few slightly larger and quickly realized that they would need to be more driven, self motivated to seek help at those than at a smaller school. For example the smaller school has RAs, "social RA equivalent" and "academic RA equivalents" living in the freshman and sophomore dorms. So 3 separate upperclassmen assigned to your freshman who live in their dorm on their floor, who are there to help with transitions and the college experience---each one with a different purpose. The RA:student ratio is 30:1 or less typically. That doesn't happen at most large state universities.
Also the opportunities to do research starting freshman year tend to be greater at a smaller university, or at least one where your kid is in a smaller program/honors program. At my kid's university it's common for freshman to do research, not so much at our state flagship, not really that common during all of undergrad.

So while my kid could easily function at a 40K university, they recognize they will be a better fit and likely achieve more in a smaller environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends completely on the kid, including personality, major, and what they hope to get out of college.

+1
I loved my small school experience, but my kids want large and spirited. Different strokes!

[Anonymous]

My kid is at a C (5-10k) school but in the Boston area so there are tons of college kids around

[Anonymous]

Any of the above, depending on the kid.