<p>I'm just wondering, but how large are the classes at Stanford? For example, would a freshman get plently of attention? I'm just wondering how it's like at other elite colleges. Thanks.</p>
<p>Have you asked this question at the Stanford board?</p>
<p>I'm a freshman in the Directed Studies freshman program here, and I'm getting taught by the Chair of the Yale's Comp Lit department, an associate professor that Yale stole from Princeton, and Charles Hill (google him, or something). All these classes have 18 kids or less. It's unbelievable the type of access I'm getting to these professors. I'm meeting with Hill later today (outside of his official office hours) to chat about some of the things we talked about in class (and told us we could meet with him 7 days / week). The Chair of the Comp Lit gave us his home phone number. Its amazing.</p>
<p>All the best,
DMW</p>
<p>You posted the exact same question in the Stanford forum. Why are you posting this in...the Yale forum? Maybe you meant to ask about the class sizes at Yale?</p>
<p>yeah, i meant to ask about yale. sorry for the confusion...i wanted to compare a number of schools. thanks for your help guys</p>
<p>Yale has the smallest classes of any Ivy, or indeed any top university (with the possible exception of Caltech).</p>
<p>Not true, according to USNews:</p>
<p>Student/faculty ratios:</p>
<p>Caltech - 3:1
Princeton - 5:1
Rice - 5:1
Penn - 6:1
Stanford - 6:1
Yale - 6:1
Harvard - 7:1
Columbia - 7:1
Chicago - 7:1
Duke - 8:1
MIT - 8:1
Dartmouth - 8:1</p>
<p>The USNews figures are incorrect, as they do not consider certain types of faculty. They also don't consider the true ratio (number of classes taught or availability of faculty in the most popular undergraduate majors versus faculty teaching in majors with very few students)</p>
<p>I'm not sure faculty/student ratio is the best measurement of class size at a top research university. Many of those renowned professors tach one course. Most students take 4 or 5. Just dividing doesn't give a true picture.</p>
<p>My S is a freshman who is taking intro science and math classes. DTW reports wonderfully small classes. My son's suitemates who are taking Humanities and language courses have maybe only one large (over 150) lecture class. That hasn't been my sons experience. He does have a freshman seminar (17 students) and math is about 30 (but is taught by a TA). Everything else is a large lecture of 150 or more albeit with a smaller discussion section lead by a TA.</p>
<p>I think the intro science classes at Yale are infamously large. There was an opinion article in the Yale Daily on just this topic last week. </p>
<p>That is not to say that my DS isn't loving Yale. He is just disappointed by the numbers in his intro classes.. If the OP is truly concerned about class size, s/he would be better served by a top LAC - Williams, Amherst, Pomona, etc.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Not true, according to USNews:</p>
<p>Student/faculty ratios:</p>
<p>Caltech - 3:1
Princeton - 5:1
Rice - 5:1
Penn - 6:1
Stanford - 6:1
Yale - 6:1
Harvard - 7:1
Columbia - 7:1
Chicago - 7:1
Duke - 8:1
MIT - 8:1
Dartmouth - 8:1
[/quote]
</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you use US News data that actually measures class size, you find:
% of Classes under 20:
Yale - 77%
Princeton - 74%
Penn - 73%
Columbia - 72%
Duke - 71%
Stanford - 70%
Harvard - 69%
MIT - 68%
Caltech - 67%
Chicago - 66%
Dartmouth - 64%
Rice - 61%</p>
<p>% of classes with 50 or more
Chicago - 5%
Duke - 5%
Yale - 8%
Columbia - 8%
UPenn - 8%
Caltech - 8%
Rice - 10%
Dartmouth - 10%
Princeton - 10%
MIT - 11%
Stanford - 11%
Harvard - 13%</p>
<p>Interestingly, Yale compares fairly well even to WAS</p>
<p>Williams - 73% of classes less than 20, 4% with 50 or more
Amherst - 72%/4%
Swarthmore - 76%/2%</p>
<p>Though each of those three schools has significantly fewer huge (over 50 students) classes than Yale, they also have fewer small (under 20) classes.</p>
<p>That is not a ranking of comparative class size, however, as you know, or ought to know.</p>
<p>Yale's intro science classes are actually much smaller than those of its counterparts, because there are several versions of them.</p>
<p>Yale is not, as you surely recognize, the #1 school for top applicants interested in the sciences.</p>
<p>
[quote]
That is not a ranking of comparative class size, however, as you know, or ought to know.
[/quote]
That's true, but it has more relation to class size than faculty/student ratio.</p>
<p>No it doesn't. </p>
<p>Its more often a function of two factors: (1) the size of a few huge (and often hugely popular) intro or survey courses; and (2) the fraction of the class majoring (or "concentrating") in the hard and social sciences vs the humanties.</p>
<p>Actually, along with Caltech, Yale has the highest success rate at getting its alumni into top science fellowships, the largest amount of federally-sponsored scientific research on the central campus per undergraduate science major, and the smallest science classes, which are pretty much the most important measures when it comes to the quality of undergraduate science education.</p>