By no means am I bad mouthing big schools or saying that you should only go to a small school. I'm just saying that going to a small school sometimes gets looked down upon when going up against the big universities.
1. You don't have to walk longer than five minutes.
Going to a small school, everywhere you go it is not going to be more than a five-minute walk. So if you wake up late for class, you can still run or walk briskly to make it to class on time. If it's cold out, it's only a short walk to your class, so the fact that you're in MN and it's cold gets a little easier when you're at a small school.
2. You get to know your teachers well.
As much as small schools preach that going there, you will have a close relationship with your teacher; it is so true. When you get to know your teacher well, you not only can go to them for help whenever you need but also, when looking for a job after school, you have an array of people that you can reach out to get recommendations and help to find a job.
3. You know everyone.
The biggest thing that I realized going to a smaller school is knowing a lot of people at the school. When going home for breaks or summer, and going out on the weekends, my friends from other schools always ask me how I know everyone at the bar. I almost always find myself saying that they go or they went to Gustavus. If they haven't gone or currently go to Gustavus, I have met them through a friend from Gustavus. This gives you a great feeling, because when you are at school not only do you say hi to everyone and feel comfortable, but when you go home, you still run into a lot of people.
4. You can play a sport.
If your dreams of playing D1 sports never came true, and D2 sports aren't appealing to you, D3 sports are a perfect place to go and still play the sport you love but play it at a higher level than you did in High School. You can play this sport, and still be able to get all of your homework and studying done. If you find that you're struggling to get stuff done on time due to sports, I go back to the second point that I made, you can go to your teachers and arrange help with that, and they are more than willing to help.
5. Yes, we do still party.
When thinking about college, of course, one thing crosses people's minds, and that's the fact of partying. I feel like people always think that the big schools are the only ones that party. It's not true. The bigger schools are the ones that get all the credit because they catch the eyes of the major party sites such as Total Frat Move. Bottom line is every school parties.
