My freshman year of college, I attended a large, prestigious university composed of over 25,000 students (over 3,000 in the freshman class alone) in a big city that I loved because I thought that’s what I wanted. The city was beautiful, and the people were wonderful; I could not love the school. I then transferred for the fall of my sophomore year to Wilkes University, a college near my hometown with less than 3,000 undergraduate students. At first, I was sad to leave my prestigious school behind, but after Transfer Student Orientation, I fell in love with my new school and soon realized that where my other school was lacking, my new school succeeded. These are the things that made me fall in love with my small university and the things that make them what they are.
1. Smaller Classes
One of my lectures at my old university comprised of about 350 people. This made it hard to learn and get the individualized attention some people need to learn. At smaller universities, classes consist of 20 people at most, making it easy to ask questions and talk to professors about any problems you may be having.
2. You Get to Know the Professors
I’ve had multiple classes with the same professors, have done presentations at conferences with them and have even gone to dinner with them for university functions. I’ve talked to my professors about our favorite Netflix shows, our hometowns and childhoods and have asked them for advice on how to deal with certain situations. I’m so grateful for my professors and that I’ve grown so close with them, which is something I never felt was even possible at my old university with professors who talked down to you and barely knew your name.
3. Small Town Charm
This is a pro and a con. Small towns often have little restaurants where you can get creamed chip beef on toast on a Sunday morning, and you know the workers by name; then places close early on Sunday’s and are closed Monday’s. In the end though, I wouldn’t trade a good plate of creamed chipped beef on toast or Eggs Benedict on a biscuit for all of the Sabrina’s stuffed challah french toast in the world.
4. Close to Home
Smaller universities are often found close to your home town, but if you don’t come from nearby, you are bound to know someone who does whose house you can crash at for good home cooking and non-dorm-bed sleeping.
5. Less of a Corporate Feel
At big universities, it’s very common to feel like you’re just another number and another money maker. At small universities, you often get such individual attention that it makes you feel as though you are not just another face in the crowd. Professors, staff and students take time to learn your name and sometimes learn about you as a person as well.
6. Small Community = Easier to Make Friends
When your classes sometimes consist of 10 people and those same people are in all of your classes, it becomes easy to make friends rather than choosing from a sea of 350 people. You also end up finding a person or two who are just as lost as you are, so you try and schedule all of your classes together to make sure there’s at least one person you actually like.
7. Advisor Cares More
Rather than having several hundred students to advise, your advisor has around 30 at most. Instead of asking your name and where you're from every single time you walk into their office, the conversation becomes something like, “Hey, Sam! How is Dr. Smith in PS152? If he’s giving you a hard time, tell him I said to cool it!” It makes going to your advisor with questions and problems a lot less stressful.
8. None Or Few TA’s
I always had TA’s for the classes that I struggled with most, which made it difficult to get questions answered because they weren’t always sure what the answer was. At small universities, there are either no TA’s or very few of them since professors don’t have to juggle hundreds of students per class.
9. Attendance Policy
Since small universities have smaller classes, it makes it difficult to skip class without a professor noticing. While this may be a bad thing in some people's minds, it helps give you the motivation you need to get your butt out of bed and go to that three hour early morning class.
10. History
While this can be true for big universities like UPenn and Harvard, small universities take pride in their history and often keep old historical buildings as classrooms or dorms and have statues commemorating founders. Some campuses even have historic markers to point out historical buildings or monuments. For example, Wilkes University has several on or around campus.
I never thought I would love a small school so close to home as much as I do. Make sure you visit your future school several times before you attend to make sure you truly like it and never discredit a university just because it’s not what you thought you wanted. Where you fall in love may surprise you.
