<p>Wow -is Pr review on crack? Last year, they ranked UChicago higher than Swarthmore academically. This year, UChicago only got an academic rating of 86, but statistics said UChicago had smaller classes than Swat. (Classes and labs frequently 2-9, whereas Swat was frequently 10-19).</p>
<p>The Princeton Review "rankings" are pretty much useless for school to school comparisons. They are based on non-scientific opinion polls where students log onto a website and "rate" the various programs at their own school. The problem is that there is no consistent frame of reference and none of the repondents have attended more than one school. So for example, the expection by which Swatties rate "professor availability outside of class" will be a different frame of reference than students at UMich might use.</p>
<p>If UChicago would make available their Common Data Set questionaire like most schools do, we could compare actual class sizes.</p>
<p>Here is the data from Swarthmore's Common Data Set for class sizes in the fall of 2004:</p>
<p>Class sizes:</p>
<p>2-9 students: 36.6%
10-19 students: 36.9%
20-29 students: 19.3%
30 - 39 students: 3.9%
40 - 49 students: 1.1%
50 - 100 students: 1.9%
100+ students: 0.3%</p>
<p>Subsection or lab sizes (all taught by professors):</p>
<p>2-9 students: 41.3%
10-19 students: 48.8%
20-29 students: 10.0%
30 - 39 students: 0.0%
40 - 49 students: 0.0%
50 - 100 students: 0.0%
100+ students: 0.0%</p>
<p>The "most frequent class size" is a useless stat. As you can see at Swarthmore, the 10-19 is indeed "more frequent" than the 2-9 category, by a whopping 0.3% (1 class). </p>
<p>However, if you doubled the size of half the 10-19 classes so that they are now 20-49 students, the "most frequent" would suddenly be 2-9, even though your average class size has increased signficantly.</p>
<p>You need the actual class size distribution. Swarthmore (and all colleges that release their Common Data Set questionairres) provide this information.</p>
<p>Another, more usefull, interpretation of "most frequent class size" is the size of a class that a random student most frequently take. For example, assume
2-9 students 66%
100+ 33%
With above distribution, a student will take more 100+ classes than 2-9 classes.</p>
<p>I guess "most frequent class size" for Swat that way is 20-29. That is a random Swat student will find her class is in the range of 20-29 than any other.</p>
<p>Do you know what the criteria for "overall academic quality" is? I'm surprised that it changes so much from year to year for some schools, while remaining relatively stable for other schools...</p>
<p>Because it's a non-scientific non-random internet poll, the sample sizes for each school vary wildly from year to year. The fact that you get wide variation year-to-year is a tip off to the fact that the poll is not any more valid than a Teen Magazine internet poll on the hottest movie stars -- fun light reading, but not worth much more than that.</p>
<p>I suppose... it's too bad there is no easy way to compare schools. (If anyone knows of one <em>hint, hint</em> plz let me know:))</p>
<p>Visit. Hang out on campus. Sit in on a class. Do an overnight in a dorm. Talk to professors. Talk to students. Talk to alumni.</p>
<p>Yes, I suppose I'll have to cough up some of my own money, since my parents think college visits are stupid. (When WE were your age...)</p>
<p>Here we go. Statistics for UChicago: 85 percent of classes have 25 or fewer students, 90 percent of classes are taught by full professors, 95 percent of our professors are full-time...</p>