Is Rutgers or Richmond better for smaller class sizes?

The biggest practical tradeoff is scale: Richmond is a small private university built around undergraduate teaching, while Rutgers is a very large public research university where class size can vary a lot more, especially in introductory courses. If your main concern is consistently smaller classes and easier day-to-day access to professors, Richmond is more likely to feel personal. Rutgers can still offer small upper-level seminars and strong faculty interaction, but you usually have to navigate a much bigger system to get there.

At Richmond, undergrads are the center of the academic experience, so small discussion-based classes are a defining feature rather than something you mostly find later in your college career. It is common for students there to know their professors well, and the advising environment tends to be more hands-on. That usually translates into more direct feedback, more speaking time in class, and fewer large lecture settings.

At Rutgers, the experience depends a lot on your school, major, and course level. Intro classes in popular subjects can be quite large, and many first-year students will have at least some lecture-heavy courses. As you move into upper-level work, honors courses, or smaller departments, the class sizes can shrink substantially, but that is less uniform across the university.

So for smaller class sizes specifically, Richmond has the clearer edge. Rutgers offers many strengths, especially as a large research institution with broad academic options, but Richmond is the one more likely to give you that consistently close-knit classroom experience from the start.