<p>Like so many of on CC, my D prefers the smaller, LAC type schools, but we hope to find a couple in-state universities for safeties. (We're in Florida.) I know that some unis have honors colleges, but other than that...what features should we look for while touring that might hint at something resembling the smaller school feel? </p>
<p>At one school we visited on our own (no tour)...It seemed that the dorms were all pretty far from the classrooms and other buildings, which made us think that you'd have to go on quite a trek just to see if there was anything going on (other than in the dorm itself), so that made us think that dorms that are more central might be important in creating that small community feel we are looking for. </p>
<p>What other things might be helpful in offering the smaller school feel in a large university?</p>
<p>Residential colleges go a long way…I didn’t know any of the publics had them, that’s interesting about Miami. </p>
<p>I would look also at the size and number of dorms and dining halls. I’m just guessing, but I think that, given an equal number of students, you’d find more of a “small feel” with smaller dorms and intimate dining halls (even though there would have to be more of them) than big high-rise dorms and food-court style dining. </p>
<p>Check the percentage of students who live on campus as well. Many larger state schools can feel less like a community when many students live off campus and the social life is more “in town” than on campus. </p>
<p>Has your daughter looked at Agnes Scott? It’s private, but often gives good merit aid to lure young women away from more widely-known women’s colleges.</p>
<p>-Greek life/ house system
-Tutoring center with food and/or coffee
-College with its own building, dedicated library, field trips, etc
-Honors/seminar classes
-Faculty in residence</p>
<p>Honors colleges in Florida: Harriet Wilkes for FAU=> has its own distinct campus, close to hospitals/research facilities, but students can still participate in anything FAU offers socially.
New College, of course.
On a larger campus, the Honors College should have a dedicated dorm or wings and preferably a dedicated building (cf. Commonwealth building at UMass).</p>
<p>In large public universities, look for Living Learning communities where students live together and share at least one freshman seminar and sometimes a cluster of classes.</p>
<p>Starting in the summer can be a good solution - not in FL because the “innovation academy” prevents students from taking classes in the Fall, but some other state universities (such as Penn State) use the summer session to create freshman clusters with two required classes taken by a “corridor” together so that when Fall rolls around they already have friends, know the campus, and are registered for their classes while the other freshmen are trying to figure things out among 45,000 students.</p>
<p>You mention you are Floridians. Have you considered traveling out of state? We are also from Florida, so I understand the less traditional feel of the Florida state universities, both large and small. There is a very different culture and feel to schools in Georgia, Alabama, and the carolinas that gives the student a warmer, tighter community feel. Many of the schools in these states offer attractive scholarships to lure out of state students.</p>
<p>These are great suggestions of what to look for. We are definitely looking into the honors colleges, but I don’t think we can consider an honors college a true safety. We did like Harriet Wilkes.<br>
I have now learned more about what a residential college is!
Agnes Scott is on our list, but isn’t a financial safety. U Miami is on the list too, but can’t be considered a safety. I hadn’t really thought much about OOS state schools, assuming they would have a similar big school feel, but it’s something we’d consider. But, again, those wouldn’t likely be financial safeties.</p>
<p>It sounds like the LLC is a good idea. I am wary of sororities, and don’t currently imagine D being interested, but you never know. </p>
<p>I can also see how a college with it’s own building and library would help, but probably not until the sophomore/junior year? </p>
<p>I think that compact campus is a good thing to watch for too…the older unis seem to have started with that, but are spread out so much it can be hard to tell where the uni ends and the town begins. On the other hand, some of the newer ones,like UCF, are more of a campus, but so huge! It’s the one I referenced in the 1st post, that seemed to me as if it would take a lot of effort to just go and see if there were people hanging out somewhere since the dorms felt blocks away from the central campus…at least that was our impression.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people are looking for the same thing…smaller school feel, but with big state U costs, or opportunities.</p>
<p>Have you visited Florida Gulf Coast University? I have a neighbor attending there who seems very happy and it appears to be a smaller public school that may have that community environment you are looking for.</p>
<p>FGCU is not very good, I think it ranks lowest among all Florida publics - and we’re not talking UC Merced compared to other UC’s, we’re talking lowest CSU compared to the UCs.</p>
<p>Another alternative is choosing a major that is relatively rarely chosen, ie., French or Chinese vs. Spanish, or Physics vs. Biology, especially if you can skip the large intro classes thanks to AP or IB scores. </p>
<p>(For languages, an SAT Subject score of 650 is often enough to skip the lower level classes which tend to have 25-28+ students - huge for language- and with an AP score of 5 in a foreign language you should be able to place into 4th or 5th semester where classes tend to be around 20 students. Picking a foreign language other than Spanish above introductory level is also a good strategy to ensure at least one class first semester with few students enrolled, regardless of requirement or major choice.)</p>
<p>This may not be the answer you want but a lot of people I know who go to huge schools end up joining sororities/frats in order to be part of a smaller, more manageable community and find a hub for their social life.</p>
<p>TK has hit all of the major qualities that can give the “small college” feel. When I was at Georgetown, it was by no means a small college but having over 75% of undergrads on campus, a campus of connected quads, and small classes even for freshmen gave it a very small and friendly feel.</p>
<p>Prior to that, I was at a big state university with a significant commuter contingent in the student body. But I lived in honors housing and took an honors core curriculum, which gave me more of a collegial feeling than the typical student there would have enjoyed.</p>
<p>So you certainly don’t have to go small to feel small.</p>
<p>That being said, I think you can reasonably regard New College as a safety. Thanks to self-selection in their applicant pool, it has a higher acceptance rate than many of Florida’s state universities.</p>
I did that and it certainly has helped make my 24,000 person U seem much smaller. However, there are also clubs which might give the sense of community. In particular, film, engineering teams (don’t have to be an engineer to join), intramurals, outdoors, volunteer organizations (Habitat for Humanity is especially good in this regard), and major specific clubs are usually quite effective in fostering a sense of community. </p>
<p>If the university has an ASB or AFB (Alternate Spring/Fall Break) your daughter should look into participating in it. Nothing like going to another part of the state/ region of the country for a few days and volunteering. </p>
<p>I somewhat disagree with the everyone on campus thing. I know at my school there are student apartment complexes which are well known for not only offering excellent amenities at a lower cost than on campus living, but also have a great sense of community (the last apartment complex I lived in had regular keggers/ BP tournaments, a movie theater, complex sponsored tailgates, communal study rooms, etc).</p>