Does College Class Size Matter?

Sometimes, we don’t know what really matters to us until after the fact. There is a college connection there! But first the news…

NEWS

If you're gonna dream, dream big: According to ZipRecruiter, the graduating class of 2025 seems a bit too sanguine about their job prospects, with strong discrepancies between expected and actual job placement rates, starting salaries, and schedule flexibility. Now the real education begins.

From the mortar board to a welding helmet: A confluence of forces like the one above have led to more high school grads than ever eschewing college for trade school. But what’s the motivation to work hard without crippling student debt?

Science funding slashed: Trump’s latest budget cuts have already crashed college research projects and cost jobs. As labs scramble and lawsuits fly, critics say the U.S. isn’t just cutting costs but also its edge in global innovation.

Merger on the Puget Sound: Cornish College of the Arts and Seattle University are finalizing an agreement to establish a new college, placing the former on the campus of the latter. Time to take grunge to the next level. 🎸

BIG IDEA
What Does Class Size Really Influence?

Back in 2023, the New York Times and Morning Consult surveyed 2,000 young people (age 16-19) and 2,000 college graduates (ages 22-30) about the importance of 22 criteria for selecting a college. While both cohorts agreed substantially on the relative importance of most criteria, they diverged sharply in two ways: younger students prioritized being closer to family or home, while college grads valued smaller class sizes, presumably more than they did when they chose their schools.

Does class size in college matter? Students certainly seem to think so, as do teachers. Presumably, the only parties promoting lecture halls filled with hundreds of mostly awake students are budget-conscious administrators. That said, smaller classes don’t necessarily improve measurable outcomes; research on class size effects in higher education has yielded mixed results regarding academic performance metrics like grades and test scores.

Instead, the differences may be qualitative. In the 2005 study, Where class size really matters: Class size and student ratings of instructor effectiveness, economics professors at UC Santa Barbara observed a significant, nonlinear negative relationship: as class size increases, student evaluations of instructors decline sharply, particularly beyond certain thresholds. Thus, larger classes may hinder perceived teaching effectiveness even if actual effectiveness is unaffected.

College class size may or may not lead to better learning outcomes, but college grads certainly think that they do. Future college grads might want to take note.

H/T to Jeff Selingo, author of Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions and a soon-to-be-released book on finding the college that’s right for you.

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NAME THAT SCHOOL

This week’s institution of higher education has been in the news lately. Can you name it? (Find the answer at the end of the newsletter.)

1. Founded in 1842 as Augustinian College, adopting its current name in 1953.

2. Doesn’t have a core curriculum per se, but rather a Core Humanities program focused on philosophy and theology.

3. A sports powerhouse that hosts the largest student-run Special Olympics event in the world every fall.

4. Served as a hospital during the Civil War and World War I; reputed to be haunted because of it.

5. Almost closed due to students being drafted during WWII but saved by the Navy’s V-12 officers program.

APPLICATION ACTION STEPS

• Look into the Big 10 Schools.

• Explore new prompts in ACT English.

• Learn how to make cramming more effective.

• Play around with a free college ROI calculator.

HOTLINE

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ANSWER

The freshly appointed first American pope is a Villanova University alum. Go Wildcats!