When looking at LACs, a question popped into my head and wanted to get peoples views on the topic. When looking at a major at an LAC, is there a size of the major that is too large or too small? For example, at Denison, they graduate about 100 students a year in Economics. That implies about 20% of the student body is in the major. Do you start losing some of the benefits of an LAC? On the flip side, can a major be too small?
I think this is where you have to kick the tires. It will depend a lot on how many professors the department has, how many courses are offered each term, and how big those courses are. I’d check to see if the schedule of classes (usually available on the registrar’s website) provides enrollment numbers for classes.
In any case, majors like biology, psychology, econ, and (increasingly) CS are popular everywhere. As popular as econ may be at Denison, at least they’re capping classes at about 25 students, which is far fewer than introductory econ courses at most universities. Intro econ at Berkeley enrolled a whopping 720 students this past fall!
I don’t think that the chosen major diminishes the overall benefits of attending an LAC, though I guess if one is doing a 3-2 in engineering that might indeed dilute the overall LAC experience (because you’re earning a BA in physics in just three years at the LAC before moving on to earn another degree in engineering at yet another institution).
Yes, I do think that a major can be over-represented or under-represented in a way that can be negative. For instance, at tiny Ripon College in WI, the physics department has only one tenured professor (plus another visiting professor (I think) who helps out). This would definitely make me think that physics at Ripon might not be a strength. True, few people here at CC ask about or apply to Ripon.
Economics majors are over-represented at all colleges right now. I attended Knox in the mid-90s. All of my friends who were econ majors got snatched up at graduation (one is the VP of a bank now). Contrast with that today. The Ivies have a third of their students studying econ (these are not LACs, but I’ll come back to them). Moreover, Wall Street poaches all sorts of students at Ivies–history majors, English majors, etc.–to essentially be worked to death for two years. I had no idea about this until I read an article (an interview with Ezra Klein and an “expert” on these matters). Students are panicked about earning money, and any time there’s a downturn in the economy (supposedly, the economy is improving, but many don’t feel this improvement at all), students and families become conservative and risk-averse. Plus, college tuition keeps rising, fueling the pressure for one to “earn back” that money. Really, there is a lot of information out there, not just from reporters but also current Ivy students about how many students are majoring in econ (or any major) and getting poached to work 80-hour weeks for two years under the false belief that one is getting her foot in the door on Wall Street (these are two-year contracts that “use up” students who are so burned out after two years (but well compensated) that they move on).
Sadly, this is what happens given the current economic and job climate. College is viewed as a “return on investment,” which is fine (it is in part an investment in one’s career future), but not when it comes at the expense of overall learning. When college is solely considered job preparation and return on investment, this can influence students to study something perceived as “safe” (read: business- or finance-related) instead of something of serious interest (one should do both!). Thus the over-the-top focus on economics, and, to a lesser degree, financial mathematics.
I’ve wandered away from the LAC focus, but my point is that this sort of makes it tougher for all of the econ majors. Even if one’s focus is not Wall Street, jobs are scarce, and when econ and business (offered at some LACs) are the top majors at many schools, this makes competition fierce.
Too large or too small may impact class sizes or course offerings in that department. Note that too large would be relative to the number of instructors that the department has.
But these can be checked more directly by looking at the course catalogs and schedules at the school.
Alternatively a large number of students is a major could indicate that the school has a particular strength in that discipline. Agree with @warblersrule that you need to research the particulars at the school and that some information can be found on the school website. Look at the number of professors, the number of classes, breadth of offerings, average class size, chance to do research etc. in that area. If you can re-visit the school ask specific questions etc. Similarly with a very small major you want to know that there is sufficient diversity in terms of the number of professors and courses, the breadth of course offerings, research opportunities etc.
Agree that it matters to delve more deeply into opportunities, whichever size campus a student is looking at.
Denison does cap class size at 25 for Intro and some intermediate type classes – the other maximum class size is usually 18, though we’ve also seen some at 20. There are slews of Econ Macro and Micro sections every semester, so there hasn’t been a problem in getting locked out because of class size caps. So, in that case, the number of Econ majors doesn’t seem to affect class size, availability etc. (Also, while I’m sure it varies by year, the number of Econ majors I’ve seen listed is around 15% rather than 20%).
Admitted students days can be helpful in this regard, as schools will often hold departmental open houses where students can drop in and meet faculty, talk about the opportunities. And, for our LAC visits, we often scheduled a visit to departments on our own and were paired with a faculty member for a 30 min conversation about opportunities.
No, that doesn’t mean you lose the benefits. Your major is only a small part of your college experience no matter where you go. You take about 1/3 of your classes in it (maybe more in some disciplines, but particularly at an LAC you won’t take more than half your classes in your major) and a lot of your learning and experiences will happen outside of the classroom.
Even within your major, 100 students in a major is pretty small in the grand scheme of things. At a larger university you might have 100 students in your section of the intro class! My LAC graduated about 100 majors in my major (psychology) and our intro classes were typically 20-30 students, with upper level classes often being around 15-20 students.
A major can potentially be too small depending on the LAC. At some small tuition-dependent LACs with low endowments, a small major may be in danger of getting cut. This is particularly true if they only have a few professors (2-4) and/or most of those professors have joint appointments in other departments. Being in a small, undersupported major also may mean fewer resources, being crammed into an aging building on the far side of campus, having professors who are trying to apply their way out before their major is cut and they involuntarily lose their job, etc.
But sometimes that’s not the case - sometimes, well-resourced LACs may have majors that are intentionally kind of small, or they may know that there’s lower interest in certain areas and choose to keep those majors around anyway. Also, some interdisciplinary majors may be supported by the strength of other departments (e.g., the American studies major may only have 4 majors a year and one full-time professor, but 7 other professors from sociology, history, literature, and political science may participate in the program).
Factors to consider:
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How many professors in the department. This also gives you an idea of the resources the LAC is putting into that department, too;
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During visits, check out the actual facilities for that major, classrooms, equipment, department offices, etc.;
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Ask admissions about job placement for majors graduating for that major, where are they ending up?
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Consider a resource like Rugg’s Guide, which rates the strength of each department based upon the opinions of Grad School Admissions people–what do they think of the kids coming out of there?
You are asking the right questions. Schools can have a wonderful overall reputation, but weaknesses in a particular area of study, and vice versa.
Good luck!