Private Colleges With the Lowest Student-Faculty Ratios

published 6 December 2010

With the cost of college continuing to rise, so too are the concerns parents have about whether their children are getting the most out of their education. A low student-faculty ratio indicates that students are getting more educational instruction for their dollar, a major selling point among colleges.

We highlight here the ten private universities and liberal-arts colleges that boast the lowest student-faculty ratios on our list of Best Values in Private Colleges 2010-11. The ratio reflects the number of full-time students divided by the number of full-time faculty members.

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Lists College Rankings

California Institute of Technology

Location: Pasadena, Cal.

Talk about hands-on experience. Cal Tech once again tops Kiplinger’s list for having the smallest number of students per faculty member -- and when we say faculty, we don’t mean graduate students teaching Statistics 101. With most class sizes less than 20 students, it’s not uncommon for professors to lunch with undergraduates, take questions after class and serve as mentors, helping students select a field of study or research topics.

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Rice University

Location: Houston, Tex.

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Princeton University

Location: Princeton, N.J.

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Yale University

Location: New Haven, Conn.

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University of Pennsylvania

Location: Philadelphia, Pa.

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Columbia University

Location: New York, N.Y.

In a city that never sleeps, faculty never stop influencing and challenging students. Nearly 80% of Columbia’s undergraduate classes have less than 20 students, providing greater opportunities for students to reach out for extra guidance and instruction. What’s more, Columbia has had 79 Nobel laureates serve as faculty, adjunct faculty, researchers or alumni. Nine Nobel laureates are among the school’s current faculty.

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Stanford University

Location: Stanford, Cal.

One of Stanford’s objectives, as established in the school’s founding grant in 1885, is “to qualify its students for personal success.” Stanford upholds that objective by emphasizing a close, personal interaction between students and faculty. The school’s Office of Undergraduate Advising and Research, for example, offers advising, grants and programs that give undergrads more exposure to faculty and their research.