According to Harvard administrators, class size is not by any stretch the determining factor of what students can get out of a class. "I personally have never considered class size terribly important," Lewis says.

"I may be a bit unusual in that regard. When I was a student I had unforgettably wonderful classes of 400, where the effort involved in preparing lectures and course materials could not have been invested for a dozen students," he said.

Dean of Undergraduate Education William M. Todd III says that there is no "one size fits all" answer to the question of class size.

"Classes in which students can feel they actively participate better seize their attention and engage their minds," Todd wrote in an e-mail message. "But some of our professors have the rare talent to conduct a class of 1,000 as if it were a seminar of 15."

And it is not necessarily true, he added, that enrolling in a small course would ensure a stimulating classroom experience. Poor teachers are poor teachers regardless of class size.

For dedicated professors, the thought of facing an audience of hundreds two or three times a week can actually make them work harder.

Because professors often feel that they need to put on a 'performance' in class in order to keep students interested, presentations often come out more polished than they would in a small class setting.

Professor Everett I. Mendelsohn, who taught Historical A-18, "Science and Society in the 20th Century," told The Crimson last spring that he spends time before every lecture preparing to give a first class show.