I have been a student for two full years now and am currently in my third year at a small campus. I have realized that small universities actually have a lot of perks to them so I decided to share with you a list of some of the biggest perks to attending a small university.
1. Small classroom sizes.
Being a student at a small university means that your classroom size ranges from ten to thirty students. This is the complete opposite to a big state school where you could be in a class with at least one hundred other students inside an auditorium style room.
2. Instant connections.
Since this is a small university, students are bound to see and have the same students in their classes or just around campus. This means that students are able to easily build connections with their peers. In addition, professors can provide connections with other people in their field of work to their students.
3. Only professors will be teaching the class.
In larger universities, teacher assistants tend to be the ones who lead a class discussion or grade papers which means that the professor never truly gets to run the class. From my experience, I have never had a TA present in any class. The professor who is registered to teach the class is the one always teaching.
4. Easier to contact professors.
If a student is one of fifty students in a class, it is usually harder to schedule a time to have a meeting with the professor or to contact them through email since there are many students who require assistance. At a small university, it is much easier to meet up with the professor since there are fewer students to help out. At the small university I attend, I can sometimes just walk in without an appointment to my professor’s office during their office hours.
5. Walking small distances from class to class.
Smaller campuses mean that the longest distance it may take a student to walk from one class to another will only take a few minutes. At larger campuses, students need to take a bus service or plan out their schedule around the break times they get in-between their classes. For me, it takes less than five minutes to even walk from my dorm room to the building where most of my classes take place.
6. Easier to get involved on campus.
Even though a small campus means that there are fewer activities and clubs that students are able to join, it gives students the opportunity to gain leadership positions very quickly. For instance, during my second semester as a university student, I was able to become a member of the executive board for one of the clubs I was in. Additionally, it is less overwhelming for a new student on campus to join different organizations since there is not a list of one hundred organizations to pick from.
