<p>I question the idea that small classes and a close-knit environment equals a more coddled student. Being close to your professors adds a personal touvch, sure. But I believe it can lead to a different kind of demanding environment. Expectations may be just as high, but in a different way. </p>
<p>For every one of those “hovering” stories, I’ll bet you can find another anecdote, one that suggests the relationship between ‘small school’ and expectations that are different than what’s being suggested. </p>
<p>My anecdotes may not be worth much, since I’m one person and I didn’t go a selective school at all, but I’m all I’ve got. My college was small and you did get to know professors. </p>
<p>Was I coddled? In my German class I got thrown out of class for not having homework done. The professor didn’t want me sitting in there benefitting from the work of people who’d done the work. She didn’t care if my grades in there were sound, she didn’t care that we had good rapport as professor and student–that was her policy, and my butt was out for the day. It’s a far cry from a school where you get credit for skating in and acing the final whether or not you attended class. But it’s not coddling. It sure didn’t feel like it when I slunk out of class in humiliation; you can also bet your left arm I never went in without having my work done after that.</p>
<p>Similarly, my econ professor was known to put a signed “drop” slip in the mailbox of students who missed two classes without an excuse (because in a class of 50, he noticed). That’s not “coddling” either; it sure isn’t calling them up to see what’s wrong. </p>
<p>I’ll bet at Oberlin and Swat and the like you can find plenty of stories like this. They didn’t hover, they kicked your butt–just in a different variety of butt-kicking than you might get at Harvard.</p>
<p>Yeah, at a small school you may have more occasions when the “small” environment makes it more of a “caring” environment, and you’re probably going to have the unique experience of a professor knowing your personality as well as your intellect, which not everyone would find appealing. But that doesn’t mean it’s all going to be hovering.</p>