<p>My S is at a very small high school with less than 700 kids in total for grades 9 through 12. He knows everyone at his school. He is intent on going to a large university...mostly for big sports and school spirit, but also because he says he wants to be in a place where everyone doesn't know each other. Most of the schools to which he applied have 15,000 to 30,000 kids.</p>
<p>Since this will be a dramatic change in school environment for him, I'm wondering if anyone out there has a kid who did something similar, and how it went for them? I have to admit that I'm a bit worried about it!</p>
<p>D3 graduated in a high school class of 140 and is attending state school with 40,000 students. It was not her 1st choice but necessary due to extended unemployment of one parent. One month into it she thanked me for having her apply there. Because of honors program, she has been able to get any small size classes. She has found her niche (is not a partier), made good friends from all over the country, volunteers wihlocal underprivileged kids, loves Big 10 football games, is planning study abroad and internships. And studies very hard with the grades to show for it. She learned quickly that she would have to get out of her comfort zone to meet new people and that made all of the difference in the world. An answer to my prayers. Best wishes to your son!</p>
<p>Take the cue from your son. I can’t imagine kids are much different now than when we were kids, but my sibs and I went to a high school with under 700 kids. I really struggled with the big flagship, grudgingly applied and then to the residential college/honors college, but could not for the life of me imagine myself on that big sprawling, bus needing campus and went to a small college after numerous arguments with my dad about “big fish, small pond.” My sister and brother couldn’t wait to get to the big uni. When I’ve worked for big, huge global companies as an adult I’ve always felt abit uncomfortable and I’ve always thrived and been the happiest at smaller companies where I knew eveyone…it’s so personal - that comfort zone.</p>
<p>My kids hs had less than 400 kids. They are both at a state flagship. Their school has a week of welcome to help them adjust before school starts. They love it. They are also in the honors program, which can give a smaller feel.</p>
<p>Thank you for the input…but…doesn’t anyone have an experience that is <em>not</em> in the honors college? That makes the whole situation quite different…</p>
<p>My oldest son went to a charter high school with less than 350 students. He is now a senior at UC Berkeley and loving it there.</p>
<p>When he was applying to colleges, I tried to steer him toward LACs, but he said he didn’t want a small school experience. I had my concerns regarding how he would manage at a large school, but he is doing great.</p>
<p>My son says that students should be involved in at least 3 smaller groups in order to make a large school intimate. For my son, this is his living environment (he shares a house with three wonderful roommates), his work, and a club that he is very involved in.</p>
<p>Well, here are some of the things that my daughter did that were not honors college related ( and I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned honors college because only one class was honors): she took one class in her dorm thus had a small class size and almost everyone in it was from her dorm, she responded to a flyer posted in her dorm for people interested in being on the dorm intramural soccer team, she took a language class because they are small class sizes, art class same thing and both fulfilled gen ed requirements, she also chose to live in a learning community in her chosen major which automatically put her in 2 classes with others in her learning community. Her school also has a 3 week program for freshman right before fall semester where students can take a 3 credit class with a max of 19 other students. They get to know the professor well and there are many activities to introduce the students to campus and to meet some of the 300 other freshman who chose to try other classes in the program. When fall semester started they already knew their way around and had made some friends. If your son’s school offers any type of programs for freshman prior to the start of school, I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>I think my kid had a major change in setting. She grew up in a rural area on a dirt road where you cannot walk to anything. Her elementary school graduating class had 22 kids. Her high school was attended by kids from six towns and her graduating class had 160. Our town has about 1700 people. </p>
<p>She went to NYU, which of course is in NYC. NYU is a very large university and doesn’t have a campus. Her freshman dorm had almost as many people as the population of our town. And of course, NYC is the most opposite extreme you can get from our rural mountain community that has no public transportation, no place you can walk, etc. She also arrived at college at age 16. </p>
<p>She LOVED it. She knew a few people ahead of time. Also, her university has separate colleges. She went to Tisch. And even within Tisch, she was in a smaller studio. So, there were subsets within the university for part of her academics. She also was involved in many things that bring close knit groups of kids together such as her a capella group starting freshmen year, Tisch Scholars starting freshmen year, and many shows she was in every year and so on. She has never come home to live in summers. She has graduated and still lives in NYC. </p>
<p>Kids do adjust. She seemed to adjust and love it from the first day. It couldn’t hurt that she was dying to go to NYU and also dying to live in NYC.</p>
<p>Can’t yet speak for the transition to college, but after many years overseas - we had a similar situation when we moved back to the US. My boys (entering 10th, 11th grades) had been in a VERY small international school - with less than 180 kids in 6th-12th grades. My older son’s class (whole grade level) never had more than 20 kids and my younger son’s grade level never had more than 34 (split into 2 classes). But the school they were going into had over 2600 students (9th-12th), with over 600 kids per grade level.</p>
<p>The advice I got from another “mom” who had gone thru this with her children was quite simple -get them immediately involved in something with the new school, and preferably something that meets/gets together before schools actually starts. </p>
<p>My older son joined the band. He went to that first day of band camp (3 weeks before school) not knowing anyone but by the first day of school he felt more comfortable -being able to recognize other band kids and having some names/faces put together. The band has been a tremendous experience for him - giving him a large group of potential friends and immediately getting him involved in football games/school spirit.</p>
<p>My younger son decided to join the golf team. He tried out a few weeks before school and made the JV team. They met up a couple of times before school to play at a local club. Obviously, the golf team is much smaller, but he did have a group of kids that he knew when school started…altho he still sits with the band kids at lunch!</p>
<p>So - with college in mind - my older son decided that being part of the band really helped him be successfull with the transition back to the US, so one of his “requirements” when he was looking at schools was that it had to have a good marching band. And my son wants to find a school that has an on-campus golf course!</p>
<p>Oh - my older son has been asked to apply to several honors college, but that’s not what he’s counting on to help with the transition. That’s what the band is for!</p>
Your definition of “very small” and mine are different - LOL.</p>
<p>Mine went from <700 to a college of over 20,000. A lot of kids from our hs go up to Penn State, Pitt, Temple and they do just fine.
In the beginning it can be a little intimidating but after the first semester, it’s no sweat.</p>
<p>I went to a high school with a graduating class of 85 and am doing fine at the University of Michigan, a school known for its somewhat impersonal nature (though I love it there). In a way, I feel more prepared than I would have if I had gone to a larger high school, because we were encouraged to talk to and get to know our teachers at such a small school. Now, I am not afraid to take the initiative, even at a school with 25,000 undergraduates, and am more than willing to talk to professors and graduate student instructors about my progress.</p>
<p>There were 45 (!!) in my D’s high school graduating class. She had attended her small private school since pre-K (and earned the unfortunate, if affectionate, moniker “lifer”). She couldn’t wait to get out of her fishbowl and wanted BIG. She’s now a sophomore, and from her earliest weeks as a freshman, settled into her huge university (18,000+) very well, still managed to find her smaller niche, but has enjoyed the big, diverse canvas that a big school offers. She has not felt lost, has a combination of lecture and small seminar classes, access to advisors.</p>
<p>My high school has a graduating class of 20 with a total student population of 200 (K-12). My current university is about 35k students, and I like it here. I would never go to a small university. Most of my classes have been small (thanks to transfer credits and placing out of some lower level courses), and there’s never been an issue with the professor not remembering my name. Been a little hard to make friends just because I’m not used to having to put myself out there, but I’ve found some wonderful clubs that fit my interests and have somewhat small numbers.</p>
<p>I think that, so long as your son is willing to speak up and advertise himself in a way, he’ll do fine.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, the key is to establish yourself as a member of one or more (preferably several) subgroups as soon as possible. These could be anything–study groups, dorm groupings, an extracurricular group (choir, intramural sports), etc. Then you can make circles of friends early on. No matter how big the universe is, you have your own little planets.</p>
<p>I also agree that since your son indicated his desire for a larger, busier environment, that is your best indicator that he will do well.</p>
<p>I think if they are ready for it they will do fine.
My oldest went to a tiny high school ( whole school less than 300 kids) but her college had fewer students , than her sisters inner city public high school.</p>
<p>However, my younger daughter- with learning challenges, had been attending a K-12 school for 6 years, with fewer than 700 students, she wanted to switch schools for high school to a comprehensive high school of over 1400. Despite my concerns, I agreed and while it wasn’t smooth as silk, she did very well.</p>
<p>i am trying to make the decision now if i want to go to a big school (Michigan), one that is about 10,000, or stick with small schools. there are 16 students in my graduating class and about 75 in the high school, so i am worried a 10,000+ school will be to big. under 700 is small? wow, thats 500-999 students is the qualifications for the 2nd biggest (out of 4) division for sports. there are only 2 high schools maybe that are that big near me.</p>
<p>I had 104 in my graduating class and went to Ohio State with 65,000 on main campus. A floor mate graduated with 3 in her class from Put in Bay schools. We were in all in 12 story honors dorm.</p>
<p>You have to watch out a little for big fish, small pond to small fish, big pond adjustment for kids who excelled without trying in HS, they can feel a little lost in the crowd. It’s just a matter of finding your niche.</p>
<p>To me if your school is small because of being rural, it was more the country life, city life things that bothered me. Not being able to see the stars due to the bright lights of Columbus and the constant noise were a difficult adjustment.</p>
<p>If your son is expressing interest, he will be fine.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, the key is to establish yourself as a member of one or more (preferably several) subgroups as soon as possible. These could be anything–study groups, dorm groupings, an extracurricular group (choir, intramural sports), etc. Then you can make circles of friends early on. No matter how big the universe is, you have your own little planets.</p>
<p>The above advice is true.</p>
<p>As I mentioned in an earlier post, my kids came from a very small high school - less than 400 kids. DS1 had less than 50 kids in his graduating class. Their entire school was one big building. So, yes, I was concerned about my kids going to a big flagship school and feeling lost. They were used to a school where the faculty knew all the kids’ names and all of their parents’ names.</p>
<p>If your child’s school has “ice-breaker” activities scheduled for the week or so before classes start, those are excellent opportunities for making new friends.</p>
<p>Look at your kid’s school’s website and see what kind of orientation activities they have before school starts. As I mentioned earlier, my kids’ school calls it, “Week of Welcome” (or WOW week), and I know that many other schools call it the same thing. My kids’ college also has a week long event (before WOW week) that kids can do that is canoeing and camping on a river. Many kids find long-lasting friendships during that week.</p>
<p>My kids were also able to “meet” kids thru Facebook long before school started. Some kids find their roommates that way. Typically, Facebooks groups are created with such names as “University of ________ Class of 2014” (or whatever) and kids join them to meet other kids that will be going to their new school.</p>
<p>He is intent on going to a large university…mostly for big sports and school spirit,</p>
<p>Lastly, you can’t underestimate how enjoyable it can be to go to a school with big sports and big spirit. My kids are having a ball going to football games and rooting for their team.</p>
<p>My kids were homeschooled and one went to a small LAC (~1500), the other to the flagship state univ. (~20,000). Both are doing great.</p>
<p>It depends on what the student prefers. My daughter is my younger child, entered college at 16, is far more socially retiring than my son, and she wanted the bigger school. She likes the anonymity that a larger school can provide. Paradoxically, it’s like there’s more personal space at the larger school because you don’t get that feeling that everyone knows everyone else.</p>
<p>My socially active older son however, loves that feeling of knowing and being known by so many.</p>