The Significance of 16

For high school seniors, the time is drawing near. We have one week remaining before the national decision deadline, May 1, arrives. Many admitted students have already enrolled in Richmond's Class of 2017; many others remain undecided. It's to those on the fence that I address this post. Please take a few minutes, if you will, to consider with me the significance of one particular number: 16.

Many of you probably know that 16 students is the average class size here at Richmond. The typical, standard, middle-of-the-road, everyday class you sit in will consist of 16 students and a Ph.D. You won’t find classes much larger than that, either – 67% (two thirds!) of our courses have fewer than 20 students in the classroom, 97% have fewer than 30 students, and the largest courses on campus are capped at 40 students. And, of course, every class and lab is professor-taught – no TAs guiding discussions or grading your papers.

If you’ve been admitted to Richmond, yours is among the most talented young minds in the world today. You can easily figure out what 16 means for you in this context – the type of discussion fostered in the classroom, the space for questions and tangents and what-ifs, the accessibility of professors, being a name and not a number, all the good things that liberal arts colleges tout.

But consider especially what it means in the context of your first few semesters as a college student. You’ll never sit in a large, anonymous lecture at Richmond. Never. When we talk about 16, we’re not talking about your junior year. We’re talking about your introductory classes, your first-year seminars. As you explore the myriad of majors and minors and academic fields available to you here, you’ll do so with the same level of access to the faculty in those fields that juniors and seniors enjoy.

And when you do get to your senior year? Don’t be surprised to find your seminars taking place with eight or nine of your friends around a conference table. Sixteen becomes rather irrelevant at that point.

It's more than just your classroom experience that I'm talking about, though. Consider what will define your undergraduate college experience – or, more importantly what you want to define your college experience. This will inevitably be a huge mix of things – the classes you take, the friends you make, the clubs you join, the sports games you attend, and much more.

But to what extent will faculty define your experience? To what extent do you want individual, personal mentorships, partnerships, and friendships with Ph.D. professors to shape your college years? At so many universities, it’s up to you to define your path – to figure out your major, to seek out research opportunities (if they exist for undergraduates), to think about career directions. Faculty don’t often take an active role in undergraduates’ lives.

At Richmond, our faculty are active researchers and experts in their fields, bringing in millions of dollars in annual funding just like the big research universities. But at Richmond, our faculty see themselves first and foremost as teachers and mentors to undergraduate students. At Richmond, your experience will be defined, in part, by the professors who get to know you, guide you, challenge you, and grow you from your first semester on campus.

So take a look at the thousands of courses available in our catalog. Start to think about what you might want to take this fall. And as you do so, envision what your academic experience will be like – in all its facets – when those classes only have 16 students in them.

If that’s what you want your college experience to be like, then welcome to Richmond.