William & Mary vs. Wake Forest: which school has smaller classes?

The main tradeoff is that both schools emphasize undergraduates, but Wake Forest is typically more intentionally small in day-to-day classroom experience, while William & Mary can feel a bit larger overall. Wake Forest is known for very small discussion-based classes and a lower student-to-faculty ratio, which usually translates into more seminars and easier professor access. William & Mary also has plenty of small classes, especially after the intro level, but it is a larger public university and that can show up more in some first-year and gateway courses.

If your priority is consistently smaller classes from the start, Wake Forest usually has the edge. Its private-university size and teaching focus tend to make the classroom experience feel more intimate across more departments. Students who care a lot about speaking up in class, getting to know professors early, and avoiding larger lecture sections often notice that difference.

That said, William & Mary is still much more seminar-oriented than many public universities. It has a strong reputation for undergraduate teaching, and upper-level humanities and social science courses in particular can be quite small and discussion-heavy. So this is not a case of one school having small classes and the other not. It is more that Wake Forest is likelier to give you that small-class feel more consistently.

If class size is one of your biggest decision factors, I would lean Wake Forest.