Does the size of your college matter?

Leaving high school and starting up a new life at college may be difficult and stressful. That’s why it’s important for you juniors to learn about the type of colleges available. Some students prefer small colleges; other students prefer to attend large universities. There are both positive and negative aspects when it comes to attending either a small college or a large university.

From my first-year experience at a large university, I found many advantages as far as learning about different cultures and getting involved with a multitude of campus activities. But I’ve also discovered a few downsides along the way.

During my first week at college, I noticed right off the bat that there were tons of activities going on to welcome freshmen and transfer students to the campus. One of the greatest events they had was something called Multicultural Week. The whole week was devoted to giving students a taste of cultures around the world and to help them get rid of any stereotypes they held about any individual or group. The activities that were put on at my school made everyone feel welcome, and it made my adjustment to college life quite easy.

Another positive aspect of attending a large university is the amount of research tools available. Large universities often have lots of funds devoted specifically to research. With these funds, universities are able to provide students with access to information through electronic sources, books, periodicals or media sources. My university is considered one of the top research universities in the southern region of the U.S. Our library is six stories tall and is filled with an abundance of media resources, books, electronic articles and more. This definitely comes in handy when your professor asks you to write a paper with a good amount of documentation.

But at a large university, I find it difficult at times to deal with such a high population of students. One such difficulty is parking. I don’t have to deal with parking because, fortunately, I didn’t bring a car to college.

However, I have many friends who have had to deal with the challenges of finding parking spaces near their classes. Many of them shell out more than $100 for parking permits and still can’t find decent parking spaces. The typical scenario: A student wakes up for a 9 a.m. chemistry lab and doesn’t feel like walking all the way across campus to get to class. She hops in her car in hopes of finding a parking space that is conveniently located near the chemistry building. The first thing she experiences is the morning rush of campus traffic. After driving around for several minutes, she finds no free spaces and has to wait until someone leaves and makes a parking space available. Often, students find themselves having to park their cars in lots quite far from their classes. So in actuality, they’re still walking to class.

Another problem with attending a highly populated school shows itself when it comes time for class registration. I personally experienced a challenge when registering for my classes. First off, the school gave us a date and time when we’d be authorized to register. By the time it got to my appointment date, scheduling had already been going on for about three weeks. This means that the good classes were either all taken up or weren’t offered at the times that were agreeable with my schedule. It was quite irritating because I had my schedule all set…and then found out that I had only 15 minutes between classes to get from one side of campus to the other! Once I discovered this, I quickly dropped one of the classes in hopes of finding the same class at a different time. Unfortunately, I found no classes to replace it! Now I have to wait until someone drops out of their class in order for me to register again.

Size really does matter when choosing the college you want to attend for the next four years of your life! If you’re more into individualized study, small class sizes and hands-on learning, then a small college or an honors program in a large college might be better for you. On the other hand, if you like participating in large lecture classes and having a lot of campus activities from which to choose, consider a larger school! The ultimate decision lies in your hands. Good luck!

Tanya Walwyn is a freshman at the University of South Florida.

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