Background:
My whole life ive lived in a city environment. I live near DC and i love new yorks environment.
I got into university of findlay for its 0-6 pharmacy program. Another thing attractive is that it offers an MBA/PharmD dual degree program which the exact thing i want to pursue. I also got a crazy scholarship so expenses are even less than if i study instate which my parents love.
The only drawback:
Its located in findlay ohio- ive visited when i interviewed and it seems really rural.
Has anyone gone from a really urban environment to a rural environment for college? is it hard to adjust? im scared
Does anyone have any tips?
Does anyone know about findlay ohio or the university itself?
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I have a kid who has gone from a relatively urban life to a more rural grad school. She is finding it has a few challenges, but some benefits as well. She has commented that everyone seems direct, and what they seem to be at first meeting holds up as she gets to know them better. In general she has found them to be nicer than people at her undergrad, she says. It sounds like you have visited, so you have an idea of what it is like. You can go home to the city for summers and winter break, too.
I haven’t heard of your university, but I can tell you that MANY kids move from urban to rural and thrive. There are a lot of very selective colleges and universities that are rural, and they have high retention rates, which means kids are happy. Your college has an decent retention rate so that is a good sign. I know a lot of kids at rural colleges who are very happy and love their schools. Plus, you have plenty of breaks in college, so you can always get a city fix when you go home.
Advantages of being at a rural school are that people tend to stay on campus because the college will often ensure that there are a lot of actvities and clubs to keep people busy. You get to know people better and make good friendships because you aren’t distracted by the goings-on of a city. You save money when you don’t live in a city.
Go on niche and read some student reviews. Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone. If this college is giving you a great offer for your chose major, it seems unwise to let it go.
As a city person myself who can’t stand rural living at all, I just want to highlight that the important thing is to find out what you actually value day to day, and figure out how that plays out in a rural setting. For example, a big reason I love cities is the variety of options for food, activities, museums, the public transportation, the close proximity to everything, exploring new neighborhoods for fun, etc. As much as rural life isn’t all bad, most of those things you simply can’t get in rural life. It all depends on why you love the city, what you’d like about rural life, and if you will be okay making the trade.
I agree with the sentiment though: keep an open mind to it, but don’t trick yourself and try to force the glove to fit.
Good luck 
It’s not really an urban v. Rural thing - you have to look at whether the college is mostly commuter or residential. If it’s mostly residential there’ll be lots and lots to do on campus. If it’s commuter, check what programmation there is in the evenings, especially on weekends: free films? Crafts? Games? Outdoors activities? Spectator sports? Intramural competitions you could join in? Is the cafeteria open on weekends? How many students stay in the dorms over the weekend?
Another issue is access: college students spend most of their time on campus and occasionally they want to get off campus. How easy is it to get off campus and what is there within a 30-45mn’s drive ?
Another thing to consider is that it’s temporary. If you are getting the education you want at a terrific price, you have a great situation and the rest of your life to experience cities. Consider your time in a rural setting part of your education.
The suburbs of DC aren’t urban, they are suburban. It is unlikely you commute to school on the metro or have great difficulty finding affordable parking spaces. I don’t think there are many bars or clubs within walking distance of your home. There will be a difference in environment, but I wouldn’t describe you as a city girl.
I am familiar with Findlay and to a lesser degree The University of Findlay. Findlay is what I would consider a mid sized town. It’s large enough to have most of what people consider necessary amenities without having to travel to a larger city. The Marathon Petroleum Corporation (the gas stations) is headquartered there so it has a nice if not vibrant downtown area. With Marathon as a benefactor the town has never been run down. It will have some but not a lot of nice restaurants, theater, a community orchestra etc. It is fairly far removed (about a couple of hours) from a city of any significant size (Columbus Ohio). Toledo is closer but I consider it a small city.
The university seems to be good at preparing students for professional programs and has some excellent programs in its own right. Pharmacy is one of them. Physical Therapy is another. I know a young lady who studied pre veterinary medicine there and had an excellent experience and was accepted to two vet schools. She is now attending Tufts Vet school. It won’t be a commuter school but many of its students will be Ohio residents. It will not feel like an LAC but the campus is nice if not beautiful.
On the whole if your goal is to get a degree in Pharmacy with as little debt as possible then U of Findlay will serve you well while providing a small college experience. Findlay will never feel like DC but you have the rest of your life for that.
Lots of kids find themselves living in a bubble, rarely leaving campus and generally wrapping themselves in school work and friends. Some love school but still need to go off campus to shop, party and see shows. Other kids never fully engage at school but are able to enjoy themselves by plunging into the surrounding community. Who are you?
Figure out what you need to be happy, and then decide if it’s people or bus fumes and top restaurants. Lots of people love NYC, but only visiting periodically is what makes vacations so awesome. Meanwhile you’re going to find that most colleges have a population of fun, smart and interesting people but they are not located in huge fun cities. I guess it comes down to this: you’ll probably find people to hang out with, but central Ohio is never going to be The Theater District. How you handle that is completely dependent on your attitude - if you give Findlay a chance it’ll probably be fine. You’ll save a mountain of cash, which you can use to go visit Cleveland, Chicago or New York.
My D is at a smallish town (arguably rural) college, she turned down a couple of colleges in vibrant cities (which she actually wanted) because the small town college was a better fit for other reasons.
She’s already done two paid internships in large cities, and is working and studying abroad in a large city now. She has an offer from a grad school in a large city.
See if Findlay will offer you these sorts of opportunities too.
If you like the school and the campus, then it sounds like spending a few years there will give you the freedom to choose whatever city or cities you want when you graduate. And you’ll have the income to enjoy them without the burden having to take a job in a cruddy location and eat bread and water because of student loan debts.
My son is a city person at heart who loves his rural midwestern college. He gets plenty of city life on breaks and will be studying abroad at a university in the heart of a really big city.
So I talked to a young urban woman who went to a rural university because it offered her so much in FA and merit money she couldn’t turn it down. She was honest with me: she said there were times she really disliked where she was living, so she focused on school and graduating a year early, which she could do since she had AP credits, took summer classes in other universities (read, in “fun” urban places) and signed up for extra classes during the year because “there wasn’t much else to do anyway.” After college she made a beeline for the big city, where she began her life unburdened by undergraduate debt. And that’s when she realized just how smart her choice was. She had a good degree from a good school - and while her friends were struggling with student loans, she’d go to Bermuda for long weekends during the winter months. I gathered, she had no regrets
Wow thanks everyone. All of your replies were honestly so helpful I really appretiate it(:
My daughter had a similar experience to the young woman described by katliamom.
She grew up in a major urban area and went to what could only be described as an inner-city school.
She was offered a full scholarship (we paid for R&B, travel and books) at a pretty rural school in Vermont. The first year was a revelation to her – season changes and snow – as well as making new friends and learning.
By the second year, the small town aspects became somewhat of a challenge and felt constricting, but she worked at home during the summer before and after, and came home during winter break. Interestingly, her biggest complaint was not the lack of city life, bars or clubs, but the lack of diversity.
Her third year was spent doing study abroad and by the fourth year, she was thrilled to be back at school, her home away from home, and spent her time doing GRE study and grad school applications. She graduated with no undergrad debt and happily matriculated to grad school, back in our urban area.
While it worked out quite well for my kid, she has no desire to live anywhere rural (or with snow) again.
Her undergrad friends are also now living mostly urban lives.
Remember, it’s a few years. I always tell people that if they are curious about living somewhere different, this is low risk way to do it.
My son left one of the largest cities in the country for Kansas State. He is a kid that has always worn “preppy” clothes, (Vinyard Vines, Kiel James Patrick, etc), loved going into the city, and the variety of foods. He has embraced the small town atmosphere and loves it! He says he stays on campus or in the small campus town almost all the time and doesn’t have time for much else. He says the campus and the people are great and he feels totally at home. He now feels like he wants to live somewhere in-between after he graduates but would be ok with a rural life.
As an alum of the University of Findlay, I have to say that it is a beautiful campus in the middle of a thriving small town in Ohio. You won’t have Broadway plays to attend, but you’ll have university productions which cast people you actually know. You’ll get to support the sports teams as a yourself, known by the people surrounding you, not just the another face in the crowd. You don’t have fancy restaurants to waste your money at, you have home town restaurants, like Cheddars, to enjoy a delicious meal with friends on a random Wednesday night. (Sidebar: You have to try the cookie there!) You don’t have the traffic of a big city and you don’t have the noise of a big city, which is a good thing when you’re supposed to be learning. There are things to do, there are friends to make…if you feel the need to be mugged or feel unsafe, take the drive to Toledo and someone will gladly break your car window and steel your phone charger 