My daughter’s courses at a flagship were all taught by professors and that’s who she talked to when she had questions or wanted to discuss a paper or assignment. I think she had 3 large lectures (more than 100 students) and for those classes there was a discussion session once a week led by a TA, but the profs were still there. The majority of her classes had 24 spots in the class, and most were not full. Her adviser has a PhD from Harvard.
When my kids were looking at schools, they wanted ‘small’ so that’s what we looked at. I was horrified at the thought of going to a school in small town with 2000 students (or even worse, tiny towns with 1200 students). Really, I was claustrophobic just going on the tours and I had car keys in my pocket so I could escape). My kids liked them so on we trudged. In the end it was money more than anything that drove the choice. They were both happy they ended up at bigger schools.
One went to visit friends at FSU the fall of her freshman year. Even after only 2 months of college, she said she could have done fine at the big school. We are asking 16 year olds to pick what style of school they’d like, and by the time they are 17 or 18, those big schools aren’t quite as scare and they can see the possibilities. The small schools are still small.
Even as a 16 year old, I knew I wouldn’t be happy at a small school.