However,the avg. class size was 29. Is that accurate,and if so do you know if all the Freshman classes are that large?
The quickest way to get a feel for class sizes is to look at the USN&WR ranking. The current ranking for Lehigh shows that 11% of classes have enrollment over 50, with 50% of classes having enrollment under 20. These don’t seem like unusual numbers compared to other comparably-ranked private universities.
Most schools, including Lehigh, fill out the Common Data Set and post it online. There is a detailed breakdown of class sizes in Section I3 of the CDS, which you could use to compare Lehigh to other schools. It should be consistent with the USN&WR numbers, but with greater detail.
Lehigh’s peers include certain liberal arts colleges (like Lafayette or Bucknell), as well as other universities. LACs are known for small classes, so in that context the Lehigh numbers might compare less favorably.
Sure, I would guess the lecture classes could have 100 students - universities can have large lecture classes with up to 500 students! Many of them may have smaller sections for discussion groups or labs with Teaching Assistants. Please encourage your child to take advantage of the professor’s or TA’s office hours. Professors love having students stop by and ask questions. And when the student needs letters of recommendation they will have had a personal relationship with the professor and the letter of recommendation will be so much better becuase the professor actually knows the student!
Here is a link to Lehigh’s Center for Academic Success
https://studentaffairs.lehigh.edu/content/study-skills-assistance
I met a professor during a Parent’s Weekend. He wasn’t even my son’s professor. He emailed my son, invited him in to talk and helped him find a research position during his sophomore summer with a different professor at Lehigh. I found Lehigh to be a very tight knit community that always had time to support their students!
At some schools you can just go into the registration system and see how many students they are allowing to register for a given class or section.
It depends what major you’re in. In the engineering school, math and science classes will be large, over 100 people sometimes. The econ 1 classes are usually large. I basically tested out of my 1st semester (business school) with AP credits, so I never personally took those. All the classes I have taken have been under 60 students, most around 30-40. Some classes will get as small as 15.