There are many (and I mean many) differences between a large university and a small, private college. Coming to the end of my third week as a student at Rochester College, I wanted to compile a list of differences I have noticed.
1) Campus Size
The most obvious difference. Western's campus is massive, while sometimes I feel like Rochester's could fit in the palm of my hand (and I have ridiculously tiny hands. Like, Donald Trump tiny). One of my classes last semester was about a 15-minute walk from my dorm, and this year I can walk out of my room and be in most of my classes in under five minutes. And that's including distractions! Which brings me to my next point...
2) People
On a small campus, everyone knows everyone! Since I'm still pretty new here, I don't have everyone's names down quite yet, but I can recognize the faces from my Welcome Week orientation group and each of my classes! While this could get repetitive to some, I am comforted by the feeling that I'm living in a cozy little community of friends, classmates, and professors!
3) Class Sizes
Going along with my previous point, the class sizes are noticeably different. At Western, I had an Anthropology class in a lecture hall with 125 classmates. My first day of class at Rochester started off with a lecture (Intro to the Christian Faith), and the class size is approximately 45 students. And the professor apologized for the "large number of students." I was floored. My smallest class has six students, including myself, and I love it. I love the intimacy of such a one-on-one experience with professors and fellow students. This is extremely beneficial as a Musical Theatre major as well, since I can get very specific feedback and I can adjust accordingly.
4) Rules
The rules have been a big culture shock for me as well. At Western, I could have a guest spend the night in my room and, as long as they were signed in as my guest, nobody really cared who it was or how long they stayed. At Rochester, only like-gendered guests are allowed to spend the night and opposite gendered visitors are only allowed in dorm rooms during Open House hours which vary in the different dorm buildings.
5) Schedule
RC, being a Christian school, holds chapel on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Since every student needs to attend 25 chapels to receive credit, there are no classes held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:10 - 11:40. This way, students do not have any excuse for having under 25 chapel credits. Also, dining hall hours are worked around the most common class schedules with breakfast from 7:30 - 9:30 a.m., lunch from 11:30 a.m. - 1:45 p.m., and dinner from 5 - 6 p.m. I'm still getting used to the dining hall weirdness after having WMU's dining halls open from 7:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. every weekday in order to accommodate all students.
6) Location
Since RC is such an itty bitty little place, we are comfortably nestled in the middle of Rochester Hills, MI. I love this because I have the ability to ride my bike to the grocery store. I haven't yet, but the freedom is there! We are also conveniently located about 12 minutes from Oakland University, and we share the use of their Health Center.
I could write another entire article about the differences between a public college and a Christian college, but I'll save that for another day. I feel like this is more of a blog-ish post than an informative article, but hopefully this will help some prospective college student make their choice!
