Is FSU or Wake Forest better for small class sizes?

Wake Forest offers the more intimate classroom experience by a clear margin. Its smaller undergraduate population and private-university structure make professor access a routine part of academic life, while Florida State’s larger scale means many students, especially in popular introductory courses, will encounter lecture halls.

At Wake Forest, discussion-based courses and smaller sections are common even outside the first year, particularly in humanities, social sciences, and many major requirements. The campus culture is built around close faculty-student relationships, office hours, advising, and classroom participation, so a student who learns through direct interaction is likely to find that environment more consistent.

FSU can still provide small classes, especially after introductory requirements, in upper-level major courses, labs, and honors offerings. Its Honors Program is particularly worth examining because it can create a smaller academic community within a much larger public university. But access to that experience is not as uniform across the student body, and high-demand general education courses can be substantially larger.

For class size as one of your top priorities, Wake Forest is the safer choice because smaller, faculty-led classrooms are more central to the standard undergraduate experience rather than an option students need to seek out.