<p>If a student is really serious about graduate work in the future, going to a school with a department of less than 5 full-time tenure track faculty can turn out to be a serious mistake. A combination of sabbaticals and retirements can hurt when it comes to graduate school recommendations (and also contacts with graduate school faculty.) It will also affect the availability of upper level electives (in ways a student couldn’t predict upon entry.)</p>
<p>So really it depends how small.</p>