If you go to a small university, you can definitely understand what it's like to live in a "bubble." Here are some of the things that I as someone who attends a school with six thousand undergraduate students feels about small schools.
1. I can walk around my entire campus in the span of 10 minutes. This is great when I have back to back classes. I can get from one to another and still have some time to spare. When friends come to visit and I give them a tour they say, "that's it? that's the whole campus?" Yup! It may be small but it is easy to navigate.
2. I see the same faces everywhere I go. You know when you are at a hotel or at an amusement park and you keep seeing the same person over and over again? That is what it is like for me at school. I will recognize someone's face and know their favorite hangout spot without actually meeting them because I pass by them almost every day.
3. I can't be an outfit repeater. Many friends I have that are at larger schools say that they can wear the exact same outfit on Monday as they would on Tuesday because there is no chance any of those people will be in both classes. For me, if I wear the same thing two days in a row, all those people in my overlapping classes will be well aware.
4. Classes are tiny, and I mean high school tiny. My biggest class has consisted of 60 people and the rest of them have an average of 20 students. This is a great opportunity to make friends in class because by the second day we all know each other's names since there are so few of us.
5. At a university this size, teachers are often friends with students. I have most of my teacher's cell phone numbers and they insist on us calling or even texting them if we have any hesitations about the course. Their office hours are held at Starbucks which feels like an excuse for a good hang out and venting session while simultaneously studying. Oh and if you miss class without letting them know, they will be happy to call you in front of everyone else.
6. We may not have huge sports teams, but we at least pretend so have loads of school spirit. You can catch me in my college sweatshirt walking by the football field, you know, showing my support for the team. Go panthers!
7. I can mention someone's first name and someone else will know exactly who I am talking about without any context. Everyone really does know everyone else.
8. "Wait, where do you go to school?" "What's that? I've never heard of it." I can't keep track of the amount of times this has been said to me.
9. When my school does something big or important and ends up on the news or circulating around social media, people finally realize that we are a school and we exist.
10. We may not have a huge sports scene, a giant campus, or classes with all unknown faces but, at the end of the day we're small and mighty!
