Class size: how small is too small?

[Anonymous]

Constraints to a small school: Seniors are on their way out so they are basically checked-out, focused on getting out of college and moving on. Then you have students away on study abroad. They aren't on campus. This affects the Juniors and Sophomores. That dwindles the numbers down. You have international students who may or may not make themselves available for close friendships. You may have some untraditional students, older returning to campus or have jobs or are part time. Less than at a university but maybe some. Freshmen are just figuring it out. Friendship can happen fast Freshmen year but can be fleeting because no one has found their footing. There's the Greek divide. I certainly wouldn't discount that. If participation is even 20%, you better pledge. Imho. The reason I say 20% is for all the above reasons mentioned - there are not as many students available for friendship, not as many as you might think.

[Anonymous]

Agree with many. One thing to add is that you don’t remember hundreds of kids because you went to a school where you wouldn’t run into them constantly. That is going to be different at a school this size. Whether positive or negative depends on the person. But the point is that it isn’t linear.

[Anonymous]

Might look at Holy Cross at 3,300 kids or Wesleyan at over 3,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you kid has a strong leaning, then that's that.

my only concern would be any counselor saying Williams/Pomona/Swat "are realistic reaches/targets". our HS has a track record too (not at every school) but still these schools accept far fewer than they reject. Vassar a bit easier. And they have ED2 so you could do ED1 to Pomona or Williams and then ED2 to Vassar

OP obviously meant WSP as reaches and Vassar, Hamilton are targets. That’s not far fetched coming from a feeder private.

Hamilton isn’t a target anywhere. Vassar might be on the edge of one for a very high stats kid. I’m sure that is just part of their list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s all relative, but even at a small LAC with under 2,000 students there will still likely be hundreds more per grade than in high school. Perhaps if you went to a huge high school it’s different. My DC has 200 in his senior class and is headed to a LAC with just under 3,000 total. From what I hear, that size has you run into people you know and people you have never seen everyday - good stuff.

My kids had 600 in their hs class. So most small lac have less students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all relative, but even at a small LAC with under 2,000 students there will still likely be hundreds more per grade than in high school. Perhaps if you went to a huge high school it’s different. My DC has 200 in his senior class and is headed to a LAC with just under 3,000 total. From what I hear, that size has you run into people you know and people you have never seen everyday - good stuff.

My kids had 600 in their hs class. So most small lac have less students.

Fewer students. Mine has 85ish in her graduating class and chose a small (under 1500 total students LAC). She values the small individual class sizes (unlike the big schools where one lecture could be several times her entire HS graduating class), the research opportunities not being all sucked up by grad students and the opportunity to interact more closely with professors. She's a recruit, so expects that she'll find her people with the other athletes, but the smaller size actually allows more interaction and friendships with the "NARPs".

[Anonymous]

It's a preference, that's all it is. Op, let your DD go with what speaks to her.

[Anonymous]

DD is also looking at SLACs and medium size seems like the best fit. 2000 seems way too small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Constraints to a small school: Seniors are on their way out so they are basically checked-out, focused on getting out of college and moving on. Then you have students away on study abroad. They aren't on campus. This affects the Juniors and Sophomores. That dwindles the numbers down. You have international students who may or may not make themselves available for close friendships. You may have some untraditional students, older returning to campus or have jobs or are part time. Less than at a university but maybe some. Freshmen are just figuring it out. Friendship can happen fast Freshmen year but can be fleeting because no one has found their footing. There's the Greek divide. I certainly wouldn't discount that. If participation is even 20%, you better pledge. Imho. The reason I say 20% is for all the above reasons mentioned - there are not as many students available for friendship, not as many as you might think.

Also, if you don't find your group within a few weeks, it can be rough. As there simply isn't anyone else to find with only 2K students on campus.

So make sure your kid really understand what a 1.5-2K college means.

IMO, my kids found the 5-8K a perfect size. A bit more to do socially, a wider variety of students, yet still small class sizes and not having 2K students in your major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s all relative, but even at a small LAC with under 2,000 students there will still likely be hundreds more per grade than in high school. Perhaps if you went to a huge high school it’s different. My DC has 200 in his senior class and is headed to a LAC with just under 3,000 total. From what I hear, that size has you run into people you know and people you have never seen everyday - good stuff.

My kids had 600 in their hs class. So most small lac have less students.

Fewer students. Mine has 85ish in her graduating class and chose a small (under 1500 total students LAC). She values the small individual class sizes (unlike the big schools where one lecture could be several times her entire HS graduating class), the research opportunities not being all sucked up by grad students and the opportunity to interact more closely with professors. She's a recruit, so expects that she'll find her people with the other athletes, but the smaller size actually allows more interaction and friendships with the "NARPs".

Each kid will have a size that works best for them. For my kids it was in the 5-8K range for undergrad. Still smaller class sizes, still opportunities for research, ability to interact with professors (my kid did research starting sophomore year and continued it for 2 summers and had excellent recommendations for getting into top grad schools). Yet not so small that you see the same people everywhere all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, make sure you can do full pay comfortably.

Since you and DH did not go to a SLAC and likely paid less for your education, make sure you and DH are in agreement that a SLAC is a reasonable choice. The worst outcome would be for you and DH, now and going forward, to compare/contrast and complain about your DH's college experience/cost.

OP
DH’s and my state-school education prepared us for two surprisingly lucrative careers (neither of us planned it this way) so we are lucky that we can pay for our DC’s education. Off topic but that’s another reason we are so focused on college fit now because from our own personal experiences (albeit n=2), we did very well professionally and have been competitive when up against HYP alums for opportunities throughout our careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you kid has a strong leaning, then that's that.

my only concern would be any counselor saying Williams/Pomona/Swat "are realistic reaches/targets". our HS has a track record too (not at every school) but still these schools accept far fewer than they reject. Vassar a bit easier. And they have ED2 so you could do ED1 to Pomona or Williams and then ED2 to Vassar

Williams and Swat were targets/matches for my DC in RD from our school, Hamilton and vassar almost a safety in RD. Williams or Swat in ED would have been practically guaranteed for our DC, as would most of the ivies with ED if she had chosen to. It depends on the private and on the student’s profile compared to students in the grade.
OP probably has a kid in the top few students of their highschool with top stats.

[Anonymous]

I have taught and a big research instiution and at a NESCAC school. I think people who aren't familiar with small liberal arts colleges might not realize how incredibly social a lot of them are. Honestly, I think you are very likely to have a bigger social circle, a bigger set of aquaintances.

I think the real negative is that they can be somewhat homogenous. In addition to being small, they are expensive, they are likely to draw somewhat regionally, they may have feeder schools, and they sometimes have distinct personalities that reinforce themselves. The overall vibe at the NESCAC where I taught was extremely positive and satisfied. But the students who didn't fit in absolutely hated it and were very lonely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, make sure you can do full pay comfortably.

Since you and DH did not go to a SLAC and likely paid less for your education, make sure you and DH are in agreement that a SLAC is a reasonable choice. The worst outcome would be for you and DH, now and going forward, to compare/contrast and complain about your DH's college experience/cost.

OP
DH’s and my state-school education prepared us for two surprisingly lucrative careers (neither of us planned it this way) so we are lucky that we can pay for our DC’s education. Off topic but that’s another reason we are so focused on college fit now because from our own personal experiences (albeit n=2), we did very well professionally and have been competitive when up against HYP alums for opportunities throughout our careers.

As will most highly motivated, driven students from ANY college. It's 95%+ about what your student does, not where they go. So let your kid go where they are happiest (that is where they will grow and thrive the most).

[Anonymous]

My DS loves his school of 2800. He is happy with his choice of small school, run into friends and classmates everywhere and now that he has a junior knows at least a couple of kids in each of his classes. He also really knows his professors and his advisor is one of his professors this semester. It was right for him so if your kid thinks they will like it and understand what it’s like then probably they will.

We went with our niece to tour University of Maryland last year, and my kid could not believe that we spent two hours with a mutual friend and they did not want to run person they knew while we were walking around …