What are the pros and cons of a small school (about 2,200) vs a large school (about 43,000)? I have completely different colleges to choose from and want to get to know what each kind has to offer, or not offer. Thanks!
Small school (pros)
Able to be close/know most people
If it’s a small campus then not a lot of walking
You will have teaching done by a professor rather than a TA
Able to get more attention from teachers
More freedom in the curriculum
Large schools (pros)
Able to meet a lot of people
More clubs and activities
Large schools tend to have good sporting events
A lot of resources (big libraries, research programs)
The cons are pretty much just what one school has compared to what the other doesn’t.
These are just some ideas and some things won’t apply to every school. (my personal thoughts from what I have learned)
You can search CC, there are lots of threads on this.
Basically it boils down to personal preference,…choose the school that offers the experience you are looking for.
For small schools a pro is small class size but for others the small class size is a con b/c that means there is no where to hide ie; prof will know if you come to class and your reading isn’t done.
Small liberal arts colleges: class discussions, closer relationships with professors, sometimes better research opportunities (professors turn to you, not graduate students), extracurriculars are easy to participate and excel in (not competitive to get into as at some elite universities), foster a close community
Large schools: deeper course list/variety, more choices of courses and clubs, depending on the school: may have more world-famous profs (although you may see them only in a large lecture hall), some big schools have a stronger sports culture if you’re into that
One more small-school “pro”: Easier to get rec letters from profs, as you’ll have more opportunities to forge relationships and fewer fellow students clamoring for those same relationships.
Large school pro: Wealth of majors. High percentage of students change their major at least once.
Large school pro: The ability to be anonymous while on campus. Sometimes it is nice to take a break from social interaction.
Large school con: The ability to be anonymous on campus. Some students never really engage at a big school. You can skate through without being well known by profs or even other students. You don’t get the most out of your education when that happens.
Large school con: you face tremendous competition to get into important prereq classes and popular courses, and in the mad registration scramble every term, many people will lose out.
Large school pro.
If your major is not high demand, you can get classes with 15-20 kids after you get past intro courses. For example, at my school there are a lot of premeds. I’m a math major, and my classes in the 300 level have had around 20 kids max.
@existential12, do you think the large number of premed students increased the competition in the earlier Math classes?
My daughter is thinking of majoring in Math, and that’s something I’ve considered when looking at schools with large numbers of premed or engineering students.
Large school con: Those “famous” professors won’t be doing any or only very limited teaching… they’ve “earned the right” to focus on research.
ETA: And “famous” professors may have a very large lab, so even if you do perform research in their lab, you won’t be mentored by them… rather, by a harried postdoc or graduate student.
@WalknOnEggShells, not to help hijack the thread (so if you want to discuss more, you might want to start another thread), but pre-meds have no math requirement. They are gunning for As in the bio, chem, and intro physics classes, though. I think the question about engineering is a little dependent on the college – not sure big colleges with separate schools of engineering have the engineers even taking the same math classes as math majors. But if your kid wants to be a math major, they generally should be able to keep up with the engineers anyway (who aren’t as grade focused as med students, they are just trying to pass all their classes usually).
Thanks for the info @intparent. This is very helpful. I assumed Premeds take a lot of Math. I guess it’s nothing beyond a year of Calculus.
I’m going to look into the Math classes at some schools and see if the Math kids take the same courses as the engineering students. I hadn’t thought of that.
I agree that she should be able to keep up with the engineers if she wants to major in Math.
Sorry for hijacking @4a1m98tdude.
One thing to consider when looking at big vs small schools - don’t assume that a small school will definitely have smaller classes in every major than a larger school. I did a comparison of Bates and Geneseo recently, by looking at the past schedules of classes. I can’t remember if it was Math or Computer Science that I looked at, but the class sizes were surprisingly similar. I think I actually saved it in an Excel file. I’ll post it if I can find it.
I was also surprised that some medium sized schools had smaller class sizes than I would have thought. Tulane, for example, has lots of classes on their schedule with under 50 kids, even in the lower division courses that you would expect to be large. If I remember correctly, Villanova is the same.
I compared Geneseo and Depauw recently, and the difference in class size was significant. One example of a smallish school (6300 kids) that didn’t have the smaller class sizes I was expecting is University Of Rochester. The intro Computer Science courses are big - around 180 students if I remember correctly, at least for the first course.
One other thing to consider. Others have mentioned the close interaction with professors that you get at a small school. I would advise thinking very carefully about that one.
When I was looking at colleges, I remember being turned off when I sat in on small classes with teachers who collected homework and took attendance. It felt like high school. Then I visited a large school, and the teachers didn’t care if you were there or not. They wouldn’t have known even if they did care - 500 students in a lecture hall. Throw in some wild parties, and I made one of the dumbest, and ill-informed decisions of my life.
I went to the big school, and when I graduated, not one of my professors knew my name. If I could do it again, I would choose the small school.
@WalkingOnEggShells - the OP is asking about very small schools (“2200”), so Rochester, at 6300, isn’t really in the ballpark.
@existential12 - your “pro” of smaller classes sometimes appears more like a pro for smaller schools…
To be honest, 43,000 students are just too many in my opinion. Undergraduate experience shouldn’t be this impersonal.
I attended a small LAC, graduated from a medium size private and did pre-med post bach work at a large state flagship. All three were fine. It is what you make of it. I do not think the larger college was more impersonal. Just different. I attended office hours and got to know my professors fairly well. My D will be attending an LAC and it is the right choice for her. She would be overwhelmed on a campus with over 3000 students. My other D thinks her high school of 2500 is too small. To each their own.
At large schools some majors are small and therefore have small classes. If you plan to go to a large school do some research on your specific major as that will probably define your academic experience. For example, my school is a premed giant, so 300 level chem and bio classes are 300 person lectures. I’m in a less popular major, I’m going to have less than 20 people in my 300 levels classes. In large schools it is possible to have tremendous amounts of variance in academic prestige so definitely look into that as well.
@WalknOnEggShells Definitely in the early calc classes competition is high. Once you get past diff eq you’ll probably only see the occasional physics major.