<p>If anyone here attends a liberal arts college, I was wondering if you could elaborate on how it feels with a small student population. My dream college is a LAC, and the only problem I have with it is how it has only about 2000 undergrads. I really hate the whole "high school" experience, so I'm worried a LAC would be too much like high school. I'd have to be stuck around the same people for 4 years even if I didn't like them, and I always love meeting tons of new people. But I've also heard people say that 2000 is more people than you think and it is definitely not like high school. </p>
<p>So how do you feel about the size of your LAC and in your opinion, is an LAC really just like high school?</p>
<p>It’s absolutely nothing like high school. Not in the least bit. My LAC is about 2300, but I am constantly meeting new people and doing tons of different stuff. Yes, you will see many of the same people walking around campus, but the entire atmosphere is just a complete 180 from high school. Don’t even worry about it.</p>
<p>my high school has about 1300 kids
so 2000 students seems like a good size to me. I kind of like knowing the majority of the student body and a homey type of feel to a school.</p>
<p>My high school student body size was 520. I graduated with 140 other guys.</p>
<p>Amherst is 1600, more or less.</p>
<p>I didn’t have the traditional high school experience with all the cliquishness, the pettiness, the uber-competitiveness, and the sexual tension.</p>
<p>However, although I can’t empathize, I’m personally enjoying my LAC experience. I get along well with everyone, I have a handful of very close friends, and I appreciate the balance between athleticism and intellectualism here. Every person I’m acquainted with has a unique collection of life experiences, and is admirable in his or her own way.</p>
<p>If you make the effort to reach out to people, you’ll always be pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>I agree with everything kwu said. My high school absolutely had the pettiness/etc that kwu spoke of, and I find it for the most part nowhere to be found here. 98% of students are the friendliest, most engaging people you will ever meet. I would never get bored just meeting all of the different people here. I too love the athletic/academic balance.</p>
<p>^I want to go to Midd! It’s my dream college. I got this Middlebury book in the mail today and I flipped through it. Middlebury seems perfect, I love it. It looks so lovely and scenic too, I especially love the rural setting. I love the environmental activism. I love the small class sizes and presence of international students. I am not athletic though. Tell me, how bad does the weather get? How are the dorms? What do Midd students do for fun (I am not a partier, is there a lot of partying?) ? Sorry, I am just really excited to meet a Middlebury student. =D</p>
<p>haha I understand, I was just as inquisitive when I was applying to colleges.</p>
<p>The weather is, well, Vermont weather. Personally, I love having four distinct seasons because there is so much to do outdoors in each one. There’s nothing like the first warm spring day after a loooooong winter. But honestly, you’ll get used to it very quickly, and probably love the weather up here.</p>
<p>As for the dorms, it depends on which one you get. Midd will place you into one of five “commons” based on the first-year seminar you choose, and you will live in that commons’ dorms for the first two years. So while some commons have very good freshman/sophomore housing (Ross), some isn’t quite as good (Cook). Regardless, housing is in no way bad and the best part is once you become a senior and get the best housing the school offers: giant apartments with living rooms and kitchens and huge singles, all connected to or right next to dining halls! Great stuff…</p>
<p>There is absolutely no way I can characterize what Midd students to for fun because everybody does completely different things. The great thing about this is that whatever you would be interested in, you can find it on a Fri night. Want to go to a ballet or musical performance? You can find it. Want to go to a concert? Sure. Movie? Yeah. And yes, some people do choose to party. The college just puts out enough different events that you will have no problem finding something you love to do. During the week you won’t have much extra time but when you do, students generally ski (winter obviously), play some other sport (spring/fall), go to school-sponsored lectures, go for a run around the Trail Around Middlebury, or just whatever. I love the school so I have no hesitations recommending it to someone like yourself.</p>
<p>Some of the larger LACs are closer to 3,000 students, which may suit you a little better such as Bucknell, Colgate, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Holy Cross.</p>
<p>My daughter (a first year) goes to a LAC with about 2400 students. She is pretty outgoing and belongs to a wide variety of clubs and organizations, but she has probably met only about a third of the kids on campus and maybe 15% of the senior class. Next month those seniors will be leaving and 600 new students will be arriving a few months later. Yes, 2000+ students is bigger than many (not all) high school kids think it is.</p>
<p>think about it this way: how many people do you think you’d meet at a bigger school? its not like you’re going to meet all 5,000 kids in your class at a school of 20,000, and i guarantee you wouldn’t meet, let alone know, all 500 students in a school of 2,000.</p>
<p>People tend for forget that even at a small school (say, 1,600 in total, with a class of 400 each year), it means that 400 people graduate every year and 400 new people matriculate. By the time you are in your senior year, 1,200 of the kids at your college won’t have been there when you started. And part of the difference between college and high school is that everyone doesn’t know each other from elementary and middle school, come from the same neighborhood, and do the same ECs.</p>
<p>S is a freshman at Grinnell and LOVES that there is always someone to eat with, someone to hang with, someone to work out with at the gym, someone who says ‘hi’ when he crosses the campus. Downside, of course, is that your absence will be noted-by profs if you cut class, by people you want to avoid, by that girl you embarrassed yourself in front of, etc…</p>
<p>My high school is fairly big (around 1700 kids), so during my college search, I bascially refused to even look at any school smaller than roughly twice the size which cut out a good number of LACs…But for me, I wouldn’t be able to handle such a small school for 4 more years! I get that for some people it always seems like you meet new people and whatnot, but 1600 really isn’t that many people, and believe me, it’s easy to get to know a large chunk of them well, and even if you don’t know them personally, you know of most people.</p>
<p>Early on my D wanted nothing to do with a small school. She said some of the same things about it being too much like high school, not wanting to see the same people all the time, etc, etc. Through a series of events she now attends a small LAC with fewer students than her HS. And you know what? She tells me all the time that it’s nothing like she imagined in the least. She says her perceptions were not accurate compared to the reality of the actual experience. She’s enjoying the social aspects just as much as the academics.</p>
<p>It’s different strokes for different folks, but if you think you’d like an LAC you should give it a shot.</p>