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Message: [QUOTE="auror, post: 4278727, member: 1329"] More difficult in the class itself when smaller, absolutely. I'm quite sure that you're probably more likely to succeed academically in a small class, because the attention, interest, and anxiety will motivate you. All that is true. But to me the most valuable aspect of college is the transition to becoming self reliant (that and all the social stuff). In most cases it's way more important than the actual knowledge and academics (aside from the diploma itself). A big class forces you to develop the skills to self-motivate. Will you study, work, and learn if nobody is breathing down your neck? In my opinion, that's the single most important skill in the workplace. At some point you have to learn to help yourself and college seems to me the best time to do that. For a lot of people I'm sure it doesn't matter either way. And for some people they won't be able to self motivate and they'll fail. If you know you're like that, then maybe the risk is too great and should stick with small classes. But for a lot of kids in the middle of the motivation scale, at least some exposure to hands-off large class experiences is probably beneficial. [/QUOTE]