The Story Behind College Student-Faculty Ratios

Some colleges pride themselves on their student-faculty ratios. They use this as a cornerstone of their pitch to students. These numbers, however, can be very misleading.

I’ll shed some light on what where schools get their numbers and what this means for potential students. Regardless of the student-faculty ratios presented to you, be prepared to do some extra research to fully understand the learning environment at a potential college.

Student-to-faculty ratios have very little to do with actual class. Some schools insinuate that low ratios mean smaller classes and more personal attention from professors. This may be the case, but a low ratio doesn’t guarantee more one-on-one work with your teachers.

The ratio simply compares the number of students enrolled to the number of teachers employed. Keep in mind not all teachers spend equal amounts of time in the classroom.

Here’s an example. Let’s take two fictional schools: Tech U. and College State. Tech U has 10,000 students and 1,000 faculty members. College State has 1,000 students and 100 faculty members. Both schools could boast of a 10:1 student-faculty ratio. However, the learning environment at these two schools could be vastly different. One school is significantly larger than the other.

The ratio gives you no information about how classes are taught or organized. At many schools, entry level courses are almost always large lectures, regardless of advertised ratios. Upper level classes are typically smaller. Actual class size may also vary greatly within different departments at a school. A very popular or broad major may have larger classes. One class could even be large and small. Your Western Civilizations class may include a lecture period with several hundred students, and a discussion period with only 15 others.

Therefore, it is possible to attend small classes at schools with very high student-faculty ratios. Why the discrepancies? Some faculty members may spend most of their time involved in research. They may only work with a few students on very high level projects. Other teachers work almost exclusively in the classroom.

The best way to know how big or small classes are is to ask. Ask to sit in on an entry level and an upper level class. Make sure the classes are in your department. A school may also have, but not voluntarily make known, the average class size for the entire school or for a specific department.

That’s quite a number of caveats for one little statistic! Student-faculty ratio can be a give you a rough idea of class size at your school. Just realize that one little number won’t tell you the whole story. Do some research on your own and make fully formed decisions during your college search.