<p>Are there any colleges where every class is no larger than a typical high school class of around 30 students? Or do even small LACs put 100 plus students in freshman level math and science classes? I know a lot of colleges brag about that they have such and such a % of classes with under 20 students or whatever, but what is that saying about the other %? I also see statistics with "average class sizes", but still that doesn't address how big some of the classes may be. Thanks.</p>
<p>My D’s LAC has all small classes…even science. School had around 1600 total.</p>
<p>When we visited Grinnell, I think they said nothing bigger than 30. Even intro sciences. Check the Common data set to confirm.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Lindenwood says no classes will be larger than 35 ever. </p>
<p>Just as a side note, class sizes have varying effects. While it is true that if you are in a class of 10 people, the teacher will know you and notice if you are missing, it is also true that you can make that same thing happen by sitting in the front row of a 300 person class and being attentive, responsive and going to meet the professor. A lot of the difference is motivation on the part of the student.</p>
<p>You can look schools up on collegedata.com (same info as the Common Data Set in more accessible format).</p>
<p>Of the schools mentioned:</p>
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<p>Thanks for the info–I will look at collegedata.com because I wasn’t able to find the info on the common data sets.</p>
<p>Oxford College of Emory caps all but one of its classes at 33 people. The one non capped class is a lecture series where students listen to various writers, diplomats, environmentalists, etc discuss how and why they got to where they are today. </p>
<p>Go to Section I3 of a school’s common data set to get information on class sizes.</p>
<p>My daughter is at a LAC and has pretty much had all small classes. The only exception was her intro to psych. class which had 50 students – by even in that class there were small labs and the prof. knew every student by name. Even as a freshman some of her classes have been exceptionally small (12 students).</p>
<p>This is a question you can ask to admissions officers at information sessions and to student guides on campus tours when you visit schools – you can ask what is your largest class? and what is a typical class size?</p>
<p>midwestmom-I just ran about 30 random schools and Grinnell is indeed the clear winner with the largest class size 30-39 students which only makes up 4% of the classes. I didn’t find another school even close to that with the next closest Haverford with max size of 50-59 with 9% larger than 30…it seems to be quite an oddity to not have classes in excess of 100.</p>
<p>Willamette in Salem Oregon is close to Grinnell with 6% between 30-39, and only one class out of 484 greater than 39.</p>
<p>Some other examples would be Southwestern (TX), Davidson, Rhodes, Agnes Scott, Macalester, Hendrix …</p>
<p>Many of the CTCL schools fit this profile. CTCL.org</p>
<p>The easy way to find out, for the specific classes of interest, is to look at the school’s on-line schedule of classes to see if it lists capacities and actual enrollments.</p>
<p>That can also be a way to see if the course catalog actually reflects commonly offered classes, or if some of what the catalog lists appears only once every few years.</p>
<p>If you just want to see what is likely the largest class, look for introductory courses in chemistry, biology, economics, and psychology in the course schedule.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, Haverford has one class of 50-99 and none of 100 or more; only 3 in the 40-49 range, and 27 (out of a total of 368 classes in the relevant reporting period) in the 30-39 range. It’s very easy to take all small classes there. A total of 298 out of 368 classes have fewer than 20 students, but more in the 10-19 range (167) than in the 2-9 range (131). My D1 who is a rising senior there has never had a class with more than 30 students, and the vast majority of her classes have had less than 20.</p>
<p>Section I.3 of the common Data Set should have all this information.</p>
<p>As others have said, a lot of the smaller LAC’s have mostly smaller classes. </p>
<p>Even in bigger classes though, you can still make yourself known. You don’t have to be “just another face in the crowd.” My chemistry class last semester, as well as my chemistry classes for the next two semesters, are in a big lecture hall with 100+ students. I sit right in the front row though, pay attention, and almost always end up answering the professors questions. I stick around afterwards quite a bit to talk to him for a few minutes too, because he’s a really cool professor. I’m one of the few people in the class that he actually knew by name. </p>
<p>I definitely prefer having smaller classes, but huge classes aren’t necessarily going to put you at a disadvantage, they’ll just require more effort on your part.</p>
<p>Williams has detailed information about course enrollment sizes for the past 4 years.
[Spring</a> 2013 Class Size Info](<a href=“Williams College”>Williams College)</p>
<p>You can find the number of class sections in various enrollment size ranges (2-9,10-19, etc.) in section I of the Common Data Set. To find a school’s CDS online, just Google for [school name] + “Common Data Set”. Or, you can look up the class size distributions on collegedata.com.</p>
<p>Colorado College claims an average class size of 16.
According to collegedata.com, 2% of classes have 30-39 students;
0% have 40-49.
None have 50 or more, according to USNWR.</p>
<p>At Vassar, 7% of classes have 30-39 students;
1% have 40-49.
Less than 1% have 50 or more, according to USNWR.</p>
<p>At Davidson, 9% of classes have 30-39 students;
1% have 40-49.
None have 50 or more, according to USNWR.</p>
<p>Other LACs where very few classes (0%-1%) have 50 or more students:
Grinnell, W&L, Hamilton, Pomona, Haverford, Wellesley.</p>
<p>At the University of Richmond, according to the collegedata site:
Students %
2-9 17
10-19 50
20-29 31
30-39 2
40 + 0</p>
<p>Richmond apparently prides itself on having small classes.</p>
<p>For those seeking primarily small classes, LACs are definitely the way to go. </p>
<p>There’s a mistaken notion circulating out there (and you see it expressed often on CC) that one of the advantages of a private research university over a public flagship is that the private school will have more small classes. But that’s true only to a limited extent and for some schools. If you compare a Wellesley (0.6% of classes with 50+ students) or Haverford (also 0.6%) to a Princeton (11.0% of classes with 50+ students), MIT (11.3%) or Stanford (12.1%), that difference is actually much greater than the difference between the private research universities and some of the better public flagships, e.g., UNC Chapel Hill (12.5%) or UVA (15.4%). Cornell (18.2%) actually has more large classes than many public flagships.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some private research universities are lower, e.g., Chicago (4.9%), Duke (6.0%), or Yale (6.4%, lowest among the Ivies), and some public research universities are much higher, e.g., UCLA (21.9%), UCSD (34.9%). But the point is, it’s not a simple private-v.-public divide. Not all public universities are alike on this score, nor are all private universities. The bigger difference tends to be between LACs and research universities. And even among LACs there are gradations, with Williams (3.6%), Smith (4.5%), and Wesleyan (4.8%) being at the higher end of the LAC scale.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that, by definition, large classes have many students, and small classes have only a few students; consequently, it takes a large number of small classes to fill up as much time in students’ schedules as a single large class. Roughly speaking, at any school with 10% or more large (50+) classes, students on average are likely to be spending as much or more time in large classes as in small ones (<20 students), even if the school has 60% or 70% small classes.</p>
<p>University of Phoenix has small class sizes:
[Small</a> Classes - University of Phoenix](<a href=“http://www.phoenix.edu/small-classes.html]Small”>Online College for Working Adults - University of Phoenix)
</p>
<p>Clearly, colleges exist with all small class sizes but don’t think that is meaningful when searching for a school. The Grinnell/Lindenwood comparison is interesting. On paper they seem the same but in reality, totally different experiences.</p>
<p>To me, the poster child for small class is Sarah Lawrence: 40% 2-9 and 53% 10-19</p>