How long are typical classes in Australian universities?

How do Ivy League universities determine the size of their classes?

• They always bemoan the large numbers of qualified applicants they have to turn away, yet they certainly have the money to dramatically expand their class sizes. How did they decide their current class size (which is not always in line with their financial resources), and why do they not expand it?

• Answer:

  There are actually a number of factors here. The most important are available, physical space and teaching quality control. Only some schools have the physical space to expand. Both Harvard & Yale are expanding slightly - Yale is building two new colleges behind Payne Whitney, and Harvard is expanding into Allston right over the bridge from JFK Street. This will expand the undergraduate populations by 20% at most, but the simple fact is there's no more room in New Haven or Cambridge to build. I suppose they could build high-rise dorms (and additional classroom & lab & library space don't forget) but they don't want to be another Columbia or Penn. Places like Cornell or Dartmouth or Williams do have the physical room to grow, but expansion has to happen slowly or the quality of teaching will suffer (at least in the short term). In addition, the personal experience is completely different at a large college vs a small one, and places like Williams & Dartmouth have already said they have no intention or growing  and changing the intimate feeling. At a small school you can mention the name of a professor or grad student (or the girl you just started dating) & most people know who you mean - but at a very large school you can mention those names to someone in your own major and they might not have ever even met them, if you're in a department with a large number of students. Finally, while I think Mohnish's point about exclusivity may be true of a small number of administrators, doubling a college's size in the Ivy League merely changes the rate from 6% to 12%, which is still pretty exclusive. Oh and one last thing - the Ivies promise financial aid to anyone who's accepted, and if they radically increased their student bodies that might no longer be the case. I certainly couldn't have attended Yale if my parents & I had to pay for all of it !