Smaller colleges: yes or no? Choosing a college is daunting. Believe me, I know. Whether you’re transferring to finish your last two years or heading straight into a four-year university, making the final call is intimidating.
Exploring all your options will help no matter what you decide! Here are reasons why I believe a small college might be worth your consideration.
I loved being at a small college and would choose a small college again in a heartbeat.
NOTE: Collegeboard, who wrote about this topic in their post, Sizing Up Colleges: Big vs. Small designates small colleges as those that have a size 2,000 and under.
Medium colleges are between 2,000 and 15,000.
And large colleges are 15,000 and more.
Though my university had about 6,000 making it a “medium-sized” college, I still consider it small. (Especially considering my college of study within the university was very small.)
Therefore, this is more of a big versus small rather than a small/medium/or large post.
Reasons you should consider a small college:
1. At small schools, there are more chances for growth.
Less people means more opportunities in organizations. At my small college, I obtained several leadership positions and membership positions. This allowed me opportunities to grow and develop my professional work skills.
When a college is smaller, professors can better provide 1:1 attention. I was able to email professors and meet with them during office hours or right after class to ask for feedback on papers and exams. You have a better chance to improve from mistakes when you have the opportunity to ask for help from the professor rather than the TA.
Smaller classes mean more interaction between the professor and the students. Discussions are led by the professor, making coverage of the material more thorough and specific to what will be tested and evaluated.
Because there aren’t hundreds of students in each class for your specialization, the class might implement various learning methods and activities rather than class-long lectures. and the teacher will know which class covered what, meaning that there won’t be surprises on the test because of forgotten material.
2. Small colleges mean more convenience!
- Parking was RIGHT outside my apartment in a parking lot–not in a parking garage a 20 minute walk away.
- Classes were 3-8 minutes away.
- Smaller colleges can afford to offer perks because they’re not trying to accommodate a giant population of students. A few were:
- I got 1,000 free pages to print each semester.
- I get transcripts free of charge as long as I submit a request for transcript via standard mail or in person.
- My apartment came with a washer and dryer, and separated bedrooms and my “room” fee included water, heat, AC and electricity.
- Local businesses supported our school so there were student discounts at yoga studios, coffee shops, and eateries plus free delivery to campus by some restaurants.
- One local coffee shop told me and my friends that they give free house coffee refills if we brought our own mugs since we were university students studying during finals week.
- It was easy to predict when the campus fitness center would be empty.
3. There is more accessibility at small schools.
Advisors are more accessible. In other words, you can get personal career guidance.
One example is obtaining references. Asking for references from a professor who you interact with weekly is MUCH easier than asking for one from a professor whose TA teaches the class.
This is SO important if you’re thinking about grad school and when applying to competitive jobs/programs that require recent references.
4. My college town had a culture of its own.
There were local coffee shops to study in with absolutely amazing coffee, and there were local eateries with delicious food for cheap (coming from California, I was absolutely spoiled by Texas prices!)
PLUS: No traffic in town. If you’ve tackled Los Angeles, San Antonio and Dallas traffic too, you know this factor makes a difference.
5. You aren’t limited to just staying in your college town.
If I wanted to go to the city or catch concerts, capital cities were only 2 hours away!
Huge cities were between 4-5 hours away so if I wanted a weekend getaway, being in a small town was perfect.
The Takeaway
At the end of the day, a name is just a name. A college is for your education and experiences.
Do your research. Figure out your preferences and priorities. THEN, make a choice that is better for your future. This is why you’re going to college after all.
In my case, cost for education was the number one factor. Did I want the costly “college experience” or did I want to explore all the surrounding cities affordably, excel at my studies, and with the convenience of small-town college life, get a part-time job?
You may just love the big city life and want to be within public transportation commute of everything, or you may want to be in the heart of the city and have access to all the big surrounding cities!
Small-town college life is definitely not for everyone. But for me, who wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle and still close enough, it was perfect.
