Asthe college search and application season gets underway, high school students and their parents have a lot to consider—from academics, to admission rates, to, crucially, the net cost of a prospective school. But one arguably underappreciated variable in a college student’s happiness and academic success is college size.

Would you rather be on a first-name basis with your professors, or stay anonymous in a large lecture hall? Will you be energized or overwhelmed by a large bustling campus? Will you be more focused or just bored in a bucolic setting?

“A little over 4% of today’s undergraduates attend a small, private college, and I would suggest that there are far more students than just 4% for whom a small college would be an ideal fit,’’ says enrollment expert Robert Massa. He’s got no particular ax to grind—his 50-year career has included stints as vice-president of enrollment at Dickinson College with 2,200 students in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and dean for undergraduate enrollment at John Hopkins University, the sprawling Baltimore-based academic powerhouse with nearly 9,000 undergraduates and more than 25,000 graduate students.

Massa recommends small campuses for students who want to engage in class, have access to professors (as opposed to graduate student teaching assistants), take on leadership........

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