<p>Let’s say your kid likes some colleges they’ve visited, they seem like a good fit and have a good reputation, but after some digging you discover the college only awards a handful degrees in your kids’ intended major. At these smaller colleges more popular majors would have 30-40 graduates a year. Is this a big red flag? Should these schools be removed from consideration? Can you share your experience of kids attending colleges with very small departments of their major?
Thanks!</p>
<p>There are some schools which are outstanding in various fields, but graduate a small number of majors every year. For instance according to IPEDS, Cal Tech, one of the top geology schools in the world, graduates only 5 majors a year, but those majors are well represented at the top grad schools. </p>
<p>However for less elite schools it could mean that there’s a dearth of classes and/or professors offered. If few people major in something, the school has little incentive to allocate resources to it, and consequently, the quality of education may not reflect the overall reputation of the university. It may also indicate that that needed courses are offered intermittently which could prevent your child from studying abroad, taking an interesting non major course, etc. </p>
<p>My situation was somewhat similar to what you’re describing. Although my previous, “top” school offered a geology concentration, there weren’t enough professors or courses offered. Few students were interested in the same things that I was, so while my friends would discuss the latest economic theories or literary criticism with other majors, there were only three people in my field that I could have more indepth conversations with. This summer I transferred to a much less prestigious school which has an entire library devoted to the geological sciences, and it’s made an ENORMOUS difference. For the first time, I’ve found people who are fascinated by the earth sciences, and the number of opportunities at this school dwarfs those at my previous one. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I’ve known plenty of people at my old school who study something extremely obscure and they still love the school, the academics, and the intellectual stimulation. Just because there aren’t many people in the major, doesn’t mean that they’re having a poor college experience in any way, shape, or form.</p>
<p>Is there a concern that course offerings or research opportunities in the department may be limited? Checking course catalogs, schedules, and faculty rosters at the school may help answer the question.</p>
<p>I’d be concerned that courses aren’t offered frequently and it might be difficult to sequence courses to graduate on time. I’d also be concerned that there would be little choice of professors - what would happen if the student didn’t like one? And what happens if one of the few profs takes a sabbatical or is otherwise unable to teach? A friend’s D at a small LAC had issues in a small department (many depts were small there) and that was enough to take very small LACs off our list.</p>
<p>I was a Russian major in a LAC and there were only three professors. I didn’t like one of them – I thought she was mean and a bad teacher. She was also the department chairman. I remember thinking seriously about transferring. </p>
<p>BTW I had no idea I would become a Russian major when I decided to attend that university – just fell in love with the subject my freshman year. </p>
<p>The one thing that being a Russian major in a small department with only a handful of professors did help me with was that I was given almost unlimited flexibility to design my own courses my senior year – I did independent studies and in many ways acted more like a graduate student, coming up with my own reading lists and assignments. It was an experience I couldn’t have had anywhere else and I’m fairly certain that the letters of recommendation I got from the professors in the extremely small department where practically no one majored in Russian were what got me into top-notch grad programs. </p>
<p>For me, the hardest part was not having a lot of people to hang out with who shared my interests. (The other Russian majors were native speakers whose immigrant parents had strategized and decided that having a 4.0 in your major would help you get into med school – so although they were Russian majors, I was the only one who was gaga in love with the language, the literature, the poetry, etc. Mostly they wanted to talk about science)</p>
<p>Course offerings may be scant, and classes in your area of interest may also be cancelled due to low enrollment. I have had these problems. However, as the previous poster said, there may be more opportunities for independent work once you know a professor or two.</p>
<p>My undergrad degree was from a college that had well in excess of 20,000 students when I attended. My undergrad major cohort was under 30. It was a competitive major and you had to maintain a certain GPA to be accepted.</p>
<p>Just because the major is small…is not a red flag. Find out why. If it is because of poor facilities, large turnover in faculty, poor career placement…that would be a red flag…but size would not necessarily be a red flag in and of itself.</p>
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<li><p>If you are reading a LAC catalog, try to find out how often particular classes have actually been offered. My experience is that LAC course catalogs are sometimes more aspirational than real. Sort of “This is what a balanced program of courses would look like if we had the faculty to teach them all here at the same time for several years in a row.”</p></li>
<li><p>If a major is really small, it may indicate that students don’t like the faculty much. And there may be a reason for that, or not. It also may mean that there’s another, closely related field where the college is stronger, and students tend to gravitate there. For example, my kids’ college offers a major in Applied Math, but graduates only a kid or two each year with that major. Does that mean that no one is interested in Applied Math, or that there’s something wrong with the Applied Math faculty? Not at all. It means that the effort required for a BA in Applied Math would let a student get a BS in straight Math while taking all or almost all the same courses, and there’s also a BA in Math with a Concentration in Economics that is essentially an economics-oriented applied math program and is very popular. There are about 100 math majors each year, and maybe half of them lean towards applied math, just not to the specific major.</p></li>
<li><p>For the reasons Momzie said, being the only major in a small department at a LAC can be wonderful and really personal. When my sister-in-law was a visiting professor at an LAC, I once attended a dinner her department (all 3-1/2 of them) gave for her. I was impressed how well all the faculty knew the students who were majoring in their subject, and indeed the students who weren’t majoring in it but were kind of interested in it. Each one of them essentially had a personal program with faculty commitment.</p></li>
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<p>S2 considered a nearby LAC for CS. It is a small school, around 3000, and only have a dozen or so CS students graduate each year. S2 ended up at another larger school and is very happy with his choice. S2’s friend, a year older, is at this LAC for CS. He is loving it there too, and is excelling. Because there are not many students in this program, the professors are taking a “huge” interest in him and he has had many opportunities afforded to him, including a wonderful internship close to his home. (My son did not find anything this summer.) A small program that is well-run might be a great opportunity for the right person.</p>
<p>Another issue with a really small department is the potential impact of a key professor leaving.</p>
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<p>I actually found this to be true at the U of C when I was a grad student there, but not at my undergraduate LAC. In both cases, the schools had substantial departments in my major field. But at the U of C, in addition to the listing of rarely-offered courses, they listed a number of people–famous ones–as professors in the department who as it turns out spent most of their time elsewhere and might teach a course at the U of C once every 5 years…or never taught there any more even if they had in the past. They should have been listed as emeritus, but they weren’t. So it is definitely wise to delve into these things, especially if you are drawn to work with a particular person or the department is small.</p>
<p>BTW, don’t forget that there are departments where many people take courses who are not majors.</p>
<p>This is such a case-by-case basis thing (previous posters have covered a lot of potential scenarios) and the type of thing that a visit (that features time with students) can really help with–I’ll bet that most places will be happy to give your student contact information for current students.</p>
<p>Some departments will be small because few people major even though many take the courses. I think Harvard’s German department only has a handful of majors, but lots of people take their courses. In a general way though, as long as the course catalog indicates a reasonable variety of courses (and not too many that are offered alternate years), a small department can be great. Colleges with grad school probably present less concerns than those at LACs. Obviously in a small department it’s a probably if there is a professor you loathe that you can’t avoid, but that happens in big departments too if they are teaching required courses.</p>
<p>You should also consider if the department is related to other departments that are popular. I majored in Materials Engineering at a school that was mostly STEM majors, and while we traditionally only graduated < 10 students a year, it was a fantastic department. We had many more grad students than undergrads, so there were lots of professors available for research opportunities, teaching classes, and they all got to know you personally. It also meant our department had great parties. I actually knew some of the families of some of my professors since they were actual social gatherings people enjoyed attending.</p>
<p>Just beware the “service department” set up. There are colleges with few students majoring in Literature/Writing. The department exists because they need course offerings to fulfill the Freshman Lit/writing requirement. It will have a department Chair, a few professors who do their own thing, and a bunch of adjuncts. This is not likely going to lead to a fulfilling Literature major for your kid. (Although for the highly motivated it can be done.)</p>
<p>I majored in a small department and it was fantastic. I knew all the professors, grad students, administrative assistants, etc. and had open access to all of them. BUT (and it’s a huge but) it was a “small but mighty” department- the university had tagged it for investment and growth; it already had two endowed chairs for professors despite small numbers of students; it had a healthy mix of ages among the faculty (i.e. not everyone was 70 years old and only teaching one course per semester.)</p>
<p>So small, supportive and growing- could be great. Small because nobody is interested in the subject- worth probing on why. Small because the last professors are reaching retirement age and the department is no longer part of the U’s strategic plan and will likely be gone in five years… not so good.</p>
<p>OP here. Appreciate all your insights. So many valid points were brought up that we haven’t considered, but now will research. Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and experiences.</p>
<p>I also worry about the other side of the coin – a major that is too popular for the wrong reasons. Different schools have different default majors that kids fall back on for lack of other ideas. If you are madly in love with sociology or psychology and want to devote your life to the field, it’s no fun being surrounded by kids who picked it because they think it’s easy and/or they couldn’t hack it in STEM fields or paper-heavy humanities fields.</p>
<p>Nobody majors in Sanskrit by default.</p>