How do class sizes compare between Yale and Amherst?

Amherst will give you the more consistently small-class academic experience. Its undergraduate enrollment is far smaller than Yale’s, and the college is built around a liberal-arts model in which discussion-based courses and close faculty contact are routine from the first year.

At Amherst, many courses are seminars or small discussion sections, particularly outside introductory requirements. Even introductory classes tend to feel less anonymous, and professors are more likely to know students personally through class, office hours, and advising.

Yale also offers substantial individual attention, especially through its residential college system, faculty office hours, small seminars, and opportunities to work closely with professors. But Yale’s much larger undergraduate population means that introductory courses in subjects such as economics, psychology, computer science, and some sciences can be lectures with many students, often supplemented by smaller sections led by graduate teaching assistants or instructors.

As students progress at Yale, courses typically become smaller, and motivated students can build very close relationships with faculty. Still, Amherst makes the intimate classroom setting the default across more of the curriculum, whereas Yale combines small seminars with a broader research-university course structure and more variation in class size.