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Author
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Comment
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gigi
Unregistered User
(2/17/05 9:51 am)
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Question
I am asking if all of you could help me. I am right now on winter break and am swimming through college information. :rolleyes
Since most of you are going through college or have been,
Have you any good anecdotes on small Universities?
I need some good advice and I have already been to the colleges' sites. (It's all advertising, so far)
Has anyone you know been to a small university and how have they liked it? What kind of school had they come from?
Please Help
gigi:rollin
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(2/18/05 11:47 am)
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Re: Question
Dear Gigig:
When I came to my current program, I joked that I was like the academic equivalent of Goldilocks: I'd gone to an enormous city university for my BA (20,000 undergraduates crammed into three high-rise buildings connected by crosswalks) that was a little too big, a tiny private college in a beautiful setting in the middle of nowhere for my MA (population of the entire town, including students, faculty, and locals, 4000 ... I honestly believe that the *block* which I grew up on had more people than that) that was a little too small, and was now attending a private university in the city which was just right. So I can give you a little advice, if you like, but I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for ... are you asking what it's like to live in a small town? To be a member of a close-knit academic community? All of the above?
I think that, in large part (not that this is helpful), it really depends on the individual in question, and the university in question. I grew up in a city, so Hanover felt *tiny* to me: friends in my program who'd grown up in smaller towns felt much more comfortable there. But, since it really was a lovely place, eventually, I wrapped my mind around the fact that there were no options for Chinese food, that people smiled a lot, and that, well, unless I learned to drive, those would be my options for the immediate future. The college itself was superb: the faculty, for the most part, chose to work there rather then elsewhere because they were truly committed to teaching above research (though many of them were brilliant researchers as well). I don't really know about the effects of having such a tight social group on the undergraduates: people who I know who went there never really complained about insularity or feeling excluded, so you might figure that a population of 4,000 is enough for everybody ...
On the other hand, some towns are less conducive to socialization, and possessed of a wider rift between "town" and "gown": this is completely anectdotal, but I know people who attended other small town schools who complain that they felt a subtle resentment from local residents, or who felt stifled by the schools themselves. My advice would be to try to take a few campus tours if you can, or to e-mail the schools that you're interested in to ask if they can put you in contact with a current student to talk about what it's really like there. Good luck!
Best,
Helen
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evil little pixie
Registered User
(2/18/05 12:59 pm)
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Re: Question
Definitely take tours and try to talk to real students at as many different universities as you reasonably can. Make sure you have specific questions to ask them- if you personalize the questions a bit (for instance, "how do you and your friends get around" rather than "should I bring a car") you'll be more likely to get detailed answers that give you a sense of what it's really like, rather than stock propaganda, especially if you're talking to a student who either volunteers or is paid to promote the university to people like you. See if you can get hold of any student publications as well (poke around the school website and see if they have any online), and look at both the ads and the articles. You can even google the school or town and see if you get any blogs from people there, though remember blogs are influenced by the author's personality above everything else. Try making a list of what you want out of college, socially as well as academically, and once you've got as much info as you can about each school, see how they measure up against the list. Good luck! College is awesome.
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Erica Carlson
Registered User
(2/18/05 4:11 pm)
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Re: Question
Hi Gigi.
I think a lot depends on your own comfort zones. I grew up in a small farming town, so a small liberal arts college was a good and gentle intro. to the larger world for me. I then went to Chicago for grad school because they gave me money, and was claustrophobic for about a year (Where's the f%#@*&ing horizon?!!?). I got used to it, and now I'm very fond of Chicago when it isn't trying to kill me, but I think that if I'd gone straight to Chicago from MT, it would have been much more difficult. Cities vary a lot, though, and so do small towns, so tours are a really good idea. Talking to faculty and to other students is a good idea, too. I largely chose the college I attended because the head of their music dept. took time to sit down and chat about farming with my Dad.
Might be good to make a couple of lists, too. Write down what's important to you academically (do you want smaller class sizes? Certain programs or specialties? Classes taught by profs rather than first-year grad students?--that sort of thing). Then jot down what you might prefer in a living situation (public transportation, parks nearby, cultural events nearby--that sort of thing). Because the materials they send you and the web sites are so clearly promotional, it can be hard to see which colleges will combine both, but it might help you narrow the field. Good luck!
Erica
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gigi
Unregistered User
(2/19/05 11:13 am)
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college
THank you for all the advice and the anecdotes. I really apprecaite it. BTW, I live in Grosse Pointe, which is very sheltered and is a Small lake side group of cities that have big houses and great schools.
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