<p>Eightisgreat, did I read that correctly? The parents selected their kid’s college, with zero input from the kid? If that’s the case, IMO you can safely disregard any opinion they might have on the entire subject of college.</p>
<p>Re big vs small, we have the two extremes within our family. My gigantic public flagship was, to me, exhilarating and filled with endless opportunity but to my D, it was overwhelming and a little scary. She’s very happy at her tiny LAC which, to her, is intimate and personal. I would have found it stifling. Size matters, but there’s not a right or wrong answer. It depends very much on which environment is comfortable for the student.</p>
<p>You do have a point about class size, but I think the more common problem, especially at a large public, is having too many students wanting classes, not too few. And it’s true that the small schools have much more flexibility on this. When D was a freshman, one of her classes was supposed to be limited to 20. On the first day, 23 showed up. The prof looked around and said, “Well, I guess the class limit is 23” and that was that. If, say, 30 had showed up, he would have simply broken it into two sections. D says she’s never heard of someone being shut out of a class at her college. Small private colleges certainly have the advantage there.</p>