<p>So my question is do you think students who go to small (say 2,500) Liberal Arts colleges still can have the tradition college experience you would see in movies and tv or a large university? </p>
<p>You can only party with so many people, except at D1 football programs. So if you can live with partying with only 100 people, then you can have a traditional party, sorry, college experience. If you want close relationships with your professors, like you see in movies, you can do that anywhere if you go to the trouble of visiting their office hours. So, yes.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 I would be lying to you if I did not say partying was in part of my vision of a traditional college experience, but its defiantly not all. Is school spirit important at smaller colleges? Is it hard to avoid people you don’t like? Is there a greater bond between the students? Will classes be held in large lecture halls? And most important to me, are you constantly meeting new people or do you run into the same crowd every day?</p>
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At schools of 2500, not too many (if any at all).
How many students were in your HS? Did you know them all? Probably not. You won’t in college either, though you will see more than in HS because you’ll be taking classes with people from multiple school years. You WILL get to know the people in your major fairly intimately since you’ll be in the same advanced classes. But you should also have some common interests in your major, eh?</p>
<p>Some small colleges have very lively D-3 Sports programs. Others, like Davidson, even have some surprisingly competitive D-1 teams (basketball, at Davidson). Colleges like Hobart, Hamilton, Colgate, Williams, Bowdoin, Amherst, et al, offer very traditional college “experiences.” I imagine that is the case with smaller Southern and Midwestern colleges, also. Not all have active Greek-letter organizations, but most have stereotypically leafy campuses, where you’ll see students playing frisbee on the green. They run the gamut from ultra-traditional to ultra-progressive - socially, politically, and academically. It really depends on what you want, and what you’re attracted to. It’s fine to broaden your options. My sons both applied to colleges with over 20,000 undergraduates, and ones with under 2000. The younger is attending a public college with fewer than 1000 undergraduates, but applied to five enormous public universities, along with numerous small (and one mid-sized) private colleges. </p>
<p>Parts of it, sometimes. But it isn’t the same…the point of having small colleges is that some aspects of life are different than at a big public university. You’re going to meet fewer new people, especially as an upperclassman, than you would at a big school. But maybe you will meet ENOUGH new people. Everybody’s standards are different.</p>
<p>There are schools with 2500 students that have tons of spirit, sports support, housed Greek life, big parties, etc. But you have to search them out individually. There’s no way to generalize about the spirit or community-ness of small schools.</p>
<p>Take a look at schools like Washington & Lee, Butler, or Dartmouth to see some smaller schools that can offer elements of a classic pop-culture college experience.</p>
<p>You can easily find small colleges with tons of school spirit. It might not be football- or basketball-based, or it might, as it is at URichmond. It might be based on having a wonderful experience, whatever that is. Colgate in the fall. Senior thesis at College of Wooster. Housing students adore at Bennington, or their field work. You’ve to explore for yourself, as @Hanna said.</p>
<p>Thanks for the posts everybody. I realized a small college would not be exactly the same as a large institution, but your responses have helped quell some of my concerns and realize there are a lot of positives to a smaller school. I am EDing to College of The Holy Cross this fall and now feel confident that its the right decision for me. </p>
<p>good school. lots of school spirit. good football. lovely autumns. and I’ve heard there is some serious party taking place there once or twice a week.</p>
<p>Holy Cross is definitely not lacking in school spirit. People I know who have gone there are uniformly passionate about the place. They feel they got a great education and had a great time in doing it, and their loyalty to the school can’t be beat (as evidenced, for example, by an alumni giving rate of 52%, #7 among LACs and well above Harvard’s 36%, Yale’s 37%, Stanford’s 36%, Columbia’s 34%, or Chicago’s 38%). Some small schools seem to have a consistently positive vibe, and The Cross is one of them. At medium-sized schools like the Ivies it’s more hit-or-miss, and at large schools (mostly but not exclusively public) experiences vary widely. Not to say every small school has that positive vibe or maintains it over time, but HC definitely has it.</p>
<p>Just speaking for myself, I transferred from a school of 50,000 to a school of 3000, and didn’t miss a thing. (Except football.) Unlike at the school of 50K, I felt like I was a part of something at the smaller school.</p>