Everyone has heard of University of Southern California, Harvard, Berkeley, Standford, New York University, WVU and many more large schools. These universities have an average population of about 40,000 students. To be able to house and feed all these students, the universities have to have multiple dorms and dining halls. Classes can be filled with 300 plus students and it can take up to 40 minutes for students to actually walk to their classes.
But, what about smaller colleges? The ones that no one really knows about and only has a student population of 1,500. These colleges may seem boring and not have any charisma to them, but don't let the size fool you.
I attend Wesley College located in the capital of the first state, Dover, Delaware. At first glance, you notice that the college barely covers five blocks of Dover. We have one dining hall, six dorm buildings, and about five buildings that consist of where we attend classes. The largest class I've ever attended consisted of only 30 students. In a crowd of only 30 or less, it doesn't take a lot of energy to get your professor's attention. Actually, professors know everyone by first name basis and it's not hard to have a good student-teacher relationship.
At Wesley, we have around 1,400 students that attend and, of course, you won't know exactly everyone on campus, but you'll know a good amount. At big schools like University of Delaware or University of Maryland, you could meet someone one day and never run into them again. At small colleges, you can become best friends with someone one night at a party and instantly see them the next day at the cafe. A negative of this though is seeing your hook up from the night before in the sandwich line and you look like you just got hit with the ugly stick due to your extreme hangover.
Parties at big schools can consist of hundreds of people and fraternities that ask everyone trying to get in "Who do you know here?" Yes, everyone should be able to experience huge dages at these universities, but when you go to these parties, you probably know about 10% of the people there, if you're lucky. When you walk into a party at Wesley, you instantly know at least 85 percent of the party and by the end of the night, that 15 percent you didn't know before becomes your best friends.
I am not saying small colleges are overall greater than big universities. I'm just saying that going to a small college isn't the end of the world. I never knew I would love Wesley as much as I do. I found people who are going to be my friends for life and I'm also finding out who I am as a person. I have two more years here at Wesley and I can't wait for what the future holds for me.
