I may not be completely articulate because sometimes I’m confused with what I truly want. Maybe I just want people to help ease my mind.
I applied to a lot of big state schools, since I have a pretty high SAT score (1470) , but not exactly the highest GPA (3.8, but with decline in grades near 12th grade). I felt like I had the best chances of acceptance and affordability by applying to big state schools. I applied to Michigan, Arizona State, UT Austin, UT Dallas, University of Florida, University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota, and the University of Southern California (My only private school). I haven’t received decisions yet, and I have no idea where I’m going to go. However, I’ve found my feeling extremely nervous going to big schools. All these schools have at least 40,000 students (except UT Dallas). There’s a good chance I might end up at ASU, and ASU has around 80,000 students. I’ve tried to have a positive outlook for college and I feel like I’m gonna be social, but I realized that at heart, that many students in one place might make me feel overwhelmed and lonely. I’m friendly and social, but I prefer smaller friend circles and smaller classes. I really regret not applying to more private/smaller universities, and I’m wondering whether I should try to transfer to another smaller college after a year or two. I know this is a bad mindset to have, but after imagining myself in different scenarios, I kind of figured out what scenario is most conducive to my happiness and success. I was looking at Washington University in St. Louis, Emory University, and Rice University, and realized that I would be so happy in those type of environments. I just think that a big state school will have too many people for me to make close friends with.
I just want some advice. I’m outgoing, but also somewhat sensitive and just want everything to be a positive and wholesome experience. I don’t really party.
My D goes to a large State school with around 45k students. What she found is the campus get’s pretty small pretty quickly. She is part of a Living Learning Community of 56 students so that helped her make friends pretty quickly. She also became involved in another campus club and met people that way. She also participated in their dance marathon fund raiser so met people that way as well.
She also does have two friends from HS that go there as well so she goes between her HS friends and her LLC friends and in some cases, they’ve commingled like going to football games and basketball games.
My D is not really a party person and in HS she was more the type of person to wait to be asked to do something rather than initiate the activity. She seems to be coming out of that shell a bit at college. The main thing is to find things to get involved in.
You know, sometimes, I feel so extroverted and feel like big state schools are great for me. The sports and all the people and clubs will let me meet so many people. Other times, I feel like wanting to be in a smaller bubble where my vulnerabilities are exposed to less people.
You can . make a big school as small as you want. You are not going to interact with 80,000 people. Select a living/learning community to live in. Join a club that interests you. These will be your friends. You can never make a small school bigger if you don’t like the people or the smallness. You can always make a big school smaller.
Some colleges have 1/10 or 1/15 application deadlines. But if you do not apply to more schools, then, within the ones you have applied to that accept you, questions you can ask yourself when choosing among them is:
How easy is it to be part of a smaller community within the large school?
Are there freshman orientation activities that can help me get to know well a small group of people?
Do clubs provide a small community, and is there a club that appeals to me?
Does my major or school-within-the-college or house/dorm offer opportunities for conversation and bonding?
A large university is not neccessarily impersonal. But at some large universities, you may have to work harder to find a small-community-within-the-large-community than at others. Based on what you wrote, pick one that can help you connect.
Do not go in planning to transfer. Go in planning to make it work for yourself. You can always transfer, but you will have a lousy year if you don’t invest yourself, and you might end up loving the university if you do!
ASU is a large school but there are not 80K students in one place. That figure accounts for all the campuses (downtown, Polytechnic, ASU West, etc.) and their online enrollment.
I agree with post #5. I went to UT-Austin and loved it. I tell people that it’s like living in a big city - you don’t see 50,000 people at one time (well, except at football games, which are awesome). There are a lot of “neighborhoods” and you will live mostly in one of them. For me, it was the engineering building. I was pretty shy, but I made friends quickly in my classes and dorm. And there was always something to do! Some of your lower division classes will be big, but that happens at other schools, too. Once you get into more advanced classes, they will be smaller. Good luck!
Ways to make campus feel smaller - honors programs, Living/learning housing, religious groups, Greek life, service organization, student government, etc. the benefit of large campus- diverse opportunities, lots of potential friends that like exactly what you do …at small school there may be 10-20 people who like the same video game, sport, specialty interest where big school may have several hundred. More people to choose from.
Contrary to what a lot of people (including people on this site) think, large schools do not hold classes in stadiums and arenas. If you want across a large campus at class change times, you will not see 40k+ kids. You will typically have a difficult time telling the difference between the large campus and ones half the size. One benefit of large campuses are you are more likely to find kids with whom you have things in common. If there is a club/activity you are interested in, chances are a large campus will have it; and there is a good chance its a decent sized club.
That being said, some people aren’t meant for large campuses. There are smaller schools that could be options as well.
Yeah but large schools will also have lines. And waiting. Our visits to large schools where good. But our visits to small schools where exceptional. Lots more one on one attention.
Now to me when you go to a large school, you want it to be in a college town. Helps to shrink things up a bit. Compare say Asu which is in Tempe and Indiana which sits right next to downtown Bloomington. Tempe is a sprawling metro. Bloomington is small town.
I recently graduated from USC and it really wasn’t that bad Of course, it seemed like I might get hit by a bike almost every day, but I never felt like I was surrounded by my fellow students and had no room to breathe. As I’ve seen mentioned above, a lot of people really hang out with their own groups and in certain places. I liked being in the library because it was relatively empty/quiet in some sections and I could really study/relax. Other students would bring food and socialize in the library, so that was always an option if I felt sociable on any given day. It really depends on your major when it comes to class size. I was a computational linguistics major. While one of my lower division CS class had something like 200 students, other classes where much smaller. In my advanced syntax course, there were only 8 students. This made it very easy to get to know other people. And it seemed like we would all take the same classes. I’m extremely shy, so I didn’t like the idea of so many people either, but it honestly wasn’t that bad.
What is undergrad life at USC like? I’m not really a partier, and I prefer having a few close friends rather than a hundred semi-close friends. I do plan on playing intramural basketball and joining some clubs.
One plus of large universities: hundreds of clubs. I’m at the spring involvement fair for mine, which is smaller than the fall one, but still lots of interesting options.
Of course, it seemed like I might get hit by a bike almost every day, but I never felt like I was surrounded by my fellow students and had no room to breathe. As I’ve seen mentioned above, a lot of people really hang out with their own groups and in certain places. I liked being in the library because it was relatively empty/quiet in some sections and I could really study/relax. Other students would bring food and socialize in the library, so that was always an option if I felt sociable on any given day. It really depends on your major when it comes to class size. I was a computational linguistics major. While one of my lower division CS class had something like 200 students, other classes where much smaller. In my advanced syntax course, there were only 8 students. This made it very easy to get to know other people. And it seemed like we would all take the same classes. I’m extremely shy, so I didn’t like the idea of so many people either, but it honestly wasn’t that bad.