[Goose]

I TOTALLY agree that Stanford's failure to increase class size significantly is a scandal. What I fear is that the new department will require new buildings and a new drone staff to fill up way too much of the "land-rich" space, while not adding any undergraduate students. The population of the USA is 1.6 times what it was when I entered Stanford as a freshman. The undergraduate class size has not increased anywhere near that factor. Why?

I have always thought that ~1700 per class is a good size for the Stanford experience.   Perhaps not coincidentally, many other highly selective schools have similar undergraduate enrollment figures.   



If each class was 1.6X-2X larger then the undergrad experience would run the risk of becoming too big and overwhelming for students to have that sense of a shared community and common experiences most parents and high school students are seeking from a highly selective (and expensive) private university.



FWIW - I do worry about the rapid growth of staff numbers and research buildings relative to the stable undergraduate student population.   Though I realize the money, and prestige has been in award winning research and generally funding and supporting those efforts have very little to do with the undergrad experience.

I agree to some extent that if the class size increases above about 1700, it may change the "Stanford Experience". However, I think that experience has changed over time in ways I never anticipated. When I was at Stanford, leaving campus to go anyplace was kind of a "big deal". Stanford was truly "The Farm". There are so many changes I can't even begin to enumerate. However, the people I knew were mostly in my dorm(s) and in my classes/major. That was probably about maybe 300-400 people. The rest of the class was kind of a background. I think that is typical. I am not convinced that increasing the class size to 2500 would change that much. I do agree with you that freshman classes of e.g. 10,000 create an atmosphere where the student/faculty ratio can become problematic and everybody is just a number. However, I think we had maybe 50 people majoring in EE in my freshman class. If it had been double that, things wouldn't have changed much IMHO.

[Goose]

I TOTALLY agree that Stanford's failure to increase class size significantly is a scandal. What I fear is that the new department will require new buildings and a new drone staff to fill up way too much of the "land-rich" space, while not adding any undergraduate students. The population of the USA is 1.6 times what it was when I entered Stanford as a freshman. The undergraduate class size has not increased anywhere near that factor. Why?

I have always thought that ~1700 per class is a good size for the Stanford experience.   Perhaps not coincidentally, many other highly selective schools have similar undergraduate enrollment figures.   



If each class was 1.6X-2X larger then the undergrad experience would run the risk of becoming too big and overwhelming for students to have that sense of a shared community and common experiences most parents and high school students are seeking from a highly selective (and expensive) private university.



FWIW - I do worry about the rapid growth of staff numbers and research buildings relative to the stable undergraduate student population.   Though I realize the money, and prestige has been in award winning research and generally funding and supporting those efforts have very little to do with the undergrad experience.

I agree to some extent that if the class size increases above about 1700, it may change the "Stanford Experience". However, I think that experience has changed over time in ways I never anticipated. When I was at Stanford, leaving campus to go anyplace was kind of a "big deal". Stanford was truly "The Farm". There are so many changes I can't even begin to enumerate. However, the people I knew were mostly in my dorm(s) and in my classes/major. That was probably about maybe 300-400 people. The rest of the class was kind of a background. I think that is typical. I am not convinced that increasing the class size to 2500 would change that much. I do agree with you that freshman classes of e.g. 10,000 create an atmosphere where the student/faculty ratio can become problematic and everybody is just a number. However, I think we had maybe 50 people majoring in EE in my freshman class. If it had been double that, things wouldn't have changed much IMHO.