<p>It definitely depends on the person.
The only large school I'm looking at is UNC, but for a public university it's not as huge as places like U.Miami, etc. And with the honors college, the feeling is a little smaller. The other's I'm looking for are more around 2000-4000, I believe.</p>
<p>I kind of compare it to my high school experience--starting at a big public school, switching to a tiny private school. They both have pros and cons. I LOVE the sports atmosphere of big schools, the intensity. And at a big school you'll have access to resources in ways that you can get really good in one field. But I think in a smaller school it's easier to spread out and get pretty good in a bunch of things. But you can specialize more at a large school, if that's what you want to do.</p>
<p>I think medium-sized schools are great, too. My S, graduating class of 68, loves his 4,000-student school, even though he was worried it would seem too small. I loved my 9,000 student-school, but came from a class of 800.</p>
<p>Graduation rates are a good objective indication of which colleges are "best".</p>
<p>I looked at about 1000 universities and LACs and divided them into groups based on the number of undergraduates (ranges every 3000 undergrads).</p>
<p>Schools with 24,000 or more undergrads had a 5% higher grad rate than the next highest group (21,000-23,999).</p>
<p>Aside from those very large schools, the grad rates were all about the same.</p>
<p>The most common college size by far is the LAC-size. About half of all schools have fewer than 3000 undergrad students. About 20% are in the 3000-6000 range. That leaves about 30% of schools with more than 6000 undergrads.</p>
<p>But, in terms of student popularity, out of about 5.7 million students, 20% attend schools with over 24,000 undergrads although only 4% of schools are that big. About 15% attend schools with fewer than 3000 undergrads although 50% of schools are that small. About 15% of students attend schools with 3000-6000 undergrads.</p>
<p>Students are more or less evenly distributed among the other size classifications each with 7%-10% of undergrad students.</p>
<p>I go to a small school, about 3,000 undergrads. I am transferring to a larger school because I just don't feel right. Its a little to personal for me.</p>