<p>I'm thinking of going to Sweet Briar College, which from the sound of it, I absolutely love. My parents not so much. When my dad found out that there are only 700 students, he said no basically. I go to a school with 3,000 students, so it is a huge difference. I've explained to them that I learn better in smaller classes, which I've only had 2 of, and enjoyed both much more than the regular 30 student class. My question really is has anyone gone to a very small (less than 1000 students) college? And what was your experience?</p>
<p>don't let your parents influence you, go to Sweet Briar, it's probably the best women's college for getting individual academic attention from professors.</p>
<p>Since my parents are paying, they have to like the school...</p>
<p>I went to Sweet Briar a long time ago for a summer tennis program; the school is quite beautiful. (And it has plenty of tennis courts, in case you were worried! :-) </p>
<p>You need to stand up to your dad on this issue. Small schools are amazing for building professor-student relationships and receiving individualized attention. The smallest schools also seem to offer the most independent study and freedom of choice in terms of choosing courses and building a major. Bigger schools have better party life and more courses to choose from, but if you know what interests you and don't consider yourself a social butterfly, neither of those traits would really be relevant.</p>
<p>I hope your parents reconsider. Otherwise, they'd be putting you at a big disadvantage.</p>
<p>My class sizes at Carnegie Mellon (school of around 4500-5000 undergrads) have been about the same as my classes here at Caltech. In both cases the lower level classes tended to be large and lecture style, while the upper-level classes had less than twenty people.</p>
<p>(Actually, the largest class I've ever taken was here at Caltech which had around 240 students enrolled in it. It was a sophomore-grad student level class. The largest class I had at CMU was closer to 150; my classical mechanics class for engineers.)</p>
<p>Have your dad visit with you - it might change his mind.</p>
<p>As a parent and a Sweet Briar grad I think it would be great if you could have at least one of your parents visit the school with you. It is important that they feel good about where you go to college. The relationship you will form with full professors is one of the key assets. They also offer a great deal of flexibility with double majors so that students can pursue varied interests. They have a very good track record of getting their students into great grad schools, including med school. The small student body really helped me grow as a person and I ended up with a job on Wall Street when I graduated (people liked Wall Street then).</p>
<p>OP, of course you have to consider your parents' feelings about a college, not only b/c they are paying (which is important), but also b/c they are your parents. </p>
<p>I assume your father thinks a student body of 700 is too small for a"true" college experience. I tend to agree, especially with schools (Sweet Briar, Wells, Benningtron) that are also fairly isolated. And, in the case of Sweet Briar, I know several young women who transferred to larger LACs for that very reason.</p>
<p>Also, OP, schools that look good on paper may not be such a great fit in reality. If possible, you and your father should visit. You should also look for schools similar to Sweet Briar (women's college, flexible/open curric., accessible faculty, VA, southern, etc.)- - but larger.</p>
<p>I went to a college that was Sweet Briar's size--and in fact it was just down the road from Sweet Briar.</p>
<p>I loved the experience. I did wonder whether I'd get bored with the place, feeling like I knew everyone and had done everything--there were so many fewer choices of courses and majors than would be available at a big university. My fallback plan was to do a year abroad or an exchange program with other campuses (Sweet Briar, incidentally, participated in this, or used to). But even without going abroad, without spending a term on another campus, I left after four years feeling like I could have stayed another four and STILL not exhausted all the things I wanted to do and try. I was not sick of the place. I graduated wishing I'd been able to take more classes with more professors.</p>
<p>If this isn't a "true college experience" (??) then I'm not sure what I'd call it, but I can tell you that 20 years after graduation I still think it was an excellent choice for me.</p>
<p>I know people who have gone to very small colleges -- the size of Sweet Briar -- and had good experiences, and also went to large, extremely well known grad schools. I know someone who transferred out of a school the size of Sweet Briar because it was just too small for her tastes even though she had gone to a very small high school.</p>
<p>Visit Sweet Briar with your parents -- and do an overnight -- before making up your mind.</p>
<p>Just a note -- a small college often means more student-faculty interaction, but not necessarily. Some students at larger colleges can have just as much or more interaction with their profs as students at schools like Sweet Briar. The indicator for this is faculty-student ratio.</p>
<p>But I agree with others' advice to visit with your parents. Also, if visiting is not an option, bring them the viewbook or visit the school's website with them so they can see what you like about it. Ask your dad what he has against small colleges and why he doesn't want you to go to one.</p>
<p>Couldn't see myself going to any school with a student body under 30,000.</p>
<p>^ Couldn't see myself going to any school with a student body over 15000 (and that is if forced... given my own preferences, I wouldn't attend any school >5000).</p>
<p>Small colleges are generally those w/ enrollment under 3000. And yes, most LACs offer the small classes and lots of student-faculty interaction. In addition to checking the student/faculty ratio, you might want to look at usn&wr ranking and the column titled "% of classes w/ fewer than 20 students."</p>
<p>There is, however, a useful distinction between "small" (<3k) and "very small" (<1000).</p>
<p>Couldn't go to a school with more then 3000</p>
<p>My freshman year, I went to a now-defunct private junior college with less than 300 students (due to my extraordinarily poor high school grades). When you go to a school that size, there are no secrets and everybody knows what everybody else is doing 24/7. Which wasn't a problem for me, because I had moral fiber you could hang a Hummer from. But others, such as Sarah "Stick Shift" Schwartz, weren't as fortunate.</p>