Having transferred from a big state school with just over 20k students to a fairly small private school with 6k students, it’s amazing how many of my friends know each other. This happened at my big school, too, but far less often and to a lesser degree (as in not getting past a triangular connection mostly). In my current school, my friends know each other and it’s wild web of connections – a small world. The chances are also much higher that I’ll find them in similar clubs. It’s great because I never feel lost in a crowd, and if I happen to be in a room full of strangers, five minutes later someone that I somehow know will walk by and start a short conversation.
As far as academics go, both sides have their ups and downs. In my larger state school, a “small” class would be <=40 students, whereas it’s <=15-20 students here. The science classes will always be large, no matter where you go except for LACs, especially the intro-level and pre-med courses. The only difference between the two types of schools is how many sections of a class there are. In my big state school, there were about 5 sections of 250 or so people for gen chem. In here, there are 2 sections of bio classes of 200+ students. Slightly smaller, but after you’ve reached 200 the class feels big no matter what.
One drawback of a small school is the lack of availability of classes. I had to get used to the idea of some classes only being offered in the Fall/Spring, whereas in the state school classes were available in any given semester – at least one section of a class was offered during its “off” season (e.g. Physics 2 and Biology 2 offered in the Fall, Gen Chem 1 offered in the spring). This makes it more difficult to complete a major in a timely fashion at my current school. Then again, compared to the state school, there aren’t as much prereqs for upper level courses or as much required courses for majors as there are in the state school. The prereqs and major requirements for the state school seemed like a long laundry list.
Another drawback is the curving (or lack thereof) and “degrees of freedom” of the professors. In state schools, it’s more likely for exams, especially in STEM subjects, to be standardized (i.e. multiple choice), so the professor you chose would not really matter as much in the long run. Even the orgo exams were multiple choice and standardized. In here, no professor is the same, and professors could be easier/harder than the others, emphasize different things, and format their exams differently. None of my bio exams last semester, for example, were multiple choice, while the other sections had some multiple choice, but even then their MC questions weren’t the same. Choosing your professor becomes more influential to your success in the class.
