| This is a math dilemma that comes up frequently in our lab when we study particle sizes. Suppose for example that you went to a college that offered only five subjects and the students only took one subject per semester. In addition suppose that subject A has 200 students while each of the others has only 15. In this example 80% of the classes have fewer than 20 students, but 77% of the students, 200 out of 260, are in a class of 200.
The large number of classes that have a small number of students is more a measure of the variety of subjects covered rather than the experience of an entering freshman. To compare the experience of the freshmen one would compare the class size of popular classes at the different colleges: Intro to Bio, Intro to Economics etc. |