<p>Hi, I'm a senior interested in engineering at Michigan. I know the academics are excellent, but what worries me is the social life there and the size of the school. You might be thinking well of course it has tons of social life, but that might not be true for me. I come from a small high school (around 600 people), and I'm pretty introverted. I get that at any school I'll have to go out of my way to find new people, but I want to know if that will be much harder at a huge school. I've spoken to a couple other people about it, and they said it's an amazing school, but it does take a bit to figure things out. I keep telling myself that I can only go to a small school, but now I'm starting to think that might not be true. Anyone have experience with this kind of thing? </p>
<p>Any replies are greatly appreciated. Also I already got accepted to a few school, one being Case Western with a big scholarship. </p>
<p>“I get that at any school I’ll have to go out of my way to find new people, but I want to know if that will be much harder at a huge school.” </p>
<p>Day one you’ll meet 20-30 people that you share housing with and will be friendly with 4-5 of them. You’ll be there 8 semesters, minimum, and will work on projects and meet another 10-15 people. By the time you graduate you’ll have a tight circle of 5 friends and another 50 or so loosely connected to them and to you via your courses.</p>
<p>There are something like 1,200 clubs. Join one.</p>
<p>Key thought: in your first day or so there will probably be an RA giving a group a tour of the campus…it may seem a bit dorky, but go on that tour and you’ll meet a few people that you’ll stick to over the 4 to 5 years.</p>
<p>UM is a great school and you’re going to love it. Just don’t love it too much. Don’t listen to people who tell you it is OK to skip lectures…you are paying mostly for those lectures and most of them will be worth every penny…so go to class. It takes a lot of sleep to integrate knowledge into that noggin, so get your beauty sleep. Not everybody has drive or will go to graduate school, so if you want that track you’ll have to choose your friends carefully, work your tale off, and engage in enough recreation to keep your head on straight.</p>
<p>My son had 147 people in his graduating class (all boys). He has had NO trouble acclimating at UM. There are clubs, teams, and events for any interest you can name. You will just need to find your niche. The great thing about a big school is if you don’tike what or who you start out with, there are 1,000’s of other options. Go Blue! </p>
<p>I’m a freshman girl who came from a mid-sized high school. I found it very easy to make friends and get involved, but it’s all what you make of it. Feel free to message me if you have more specific questions about this. </p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman in engineering and absolutely LOVES Michigan. She also came from a small high school with a graduating class of 120 girls. The great thing about Michigan is there are ALL kinds of people there so you can definitely find a group that fits you. </p>
If you decide to attend Michigan, you might be interested in signing up for one of the residential communities. My D was in Living Arts last year and still has many good friends from that program. It was a great way to start with a small community of freshmen at a big school.