MIT has some very large class sizes in introductory classes and in large majors like EECS. Chemistry and physics are in the middle, there will be very large lectures ,as they are popular majors,but some upper level classes are smaller. Most freshman science classes are about 200 students. EECS classes can get as big as 500 students at MIT. MIT is not the school for someone who wants small class sizes, probably, unless you major in history. I don’t think art history is strong at MIT, but urban planning, economics, and political science are good, as are world languages. MIT is not really a humanities focused school, its a school for scientists and engineers, many of whom want PhDs after they earn a BS, or go on to earn an MBA, LD or MD degree. Its not a school that offers a lot of discussion or writing classes, its a school for students who want to learn to solve problems and do a lot of theoretical problem sets every week for four years, and work in labs and work on group technical projects or interested in entrepreneurship.
Every freshman at MIT who has not placed out (many do place out) takes a lot of the same requirements in freshman year: biology, chemistry, physics-mechanics, physics–electromagnetism, calculus single variable, calculus multivariable, differential equations. And physical education is required, as well as a swim class and a writing class. Only one writing class is required to graduate, but 8 humanities and/or social science classes are required to graduate. Economics counts as “humanities and social sciences”.
At a liberal arts college, you will learn to read and write and have peers who want to learn to read and write with you. At MIT, you will learn how to solve problems by doing thousands of mathematical problems in any of the science majors, working in a lab, and doing projected based classes.
At MIT you will meet students who are talented in math, engineering, mechanically inclined and some very theoretical students, but most of your peers will have little to no interest in history. I don’t know that I ever heard of an MIT student majoring in history, and I spent a lot of time there, nine years total. Quite a few students major, or double major with a science, in music, theatre, urban planning, architecture, political science, philosophy, or economics and take world languages, or take a focus in Technology and Society, but Art History, its not a common interest at MIT, and there are few classes in that offered.
some MIT students with deep humanities interests, spend a lot of time at Wellesley College though, but if you want such a major as art history find a school that offers that subject like Williams College or Wellesley College etc.