School sizeAnswered
What is the difference in experience at smaller schools with 1000-2000 students vs large ones with 10,000+? My high school only has 350 students so all of these sizes seem huge to me.
There’s a difference for scholarships total and scholarships per capita. Especially automatic merit.
Good point! To clarify, I meant scholarships strictly given by the school.
I know. But if a school gives 500 in scholarships to 500 students is different from 1M in scholarships to 25k students. Total amount given is a bad stat amount per capita is better
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A smaller college will have small classes and a more one-on-one feel whereas bigger colleges will have pretty big classes until you get to the classes that are for a specific major. Small schools also have a much safer atmosphere and people there are more connected. This isn’t saying that you won’t find this in a large school, but with less people is is much easier to know more of them. There are also lots of myths about large schools providing a better education, but several studies have found that it really depends on the independent students and there is not much of a difference. I am a sophomore (about to become a junior) in a small school and I know that I am more comfortable in small classrooms so I am going to apply for smaller schools. It is more about your comfort zone than anything.
Smaller schools usually are better in the sense they offer more personal teaching as teachers have less students so they can personally offer help and such. For larger schools since they are bigger they usually have things like frat houses or sororities, more clubs, competitive sports etc. So it really depends what you want to get our of the college experience besides the academic part.
It kind of depends. If you're at a school with 10,000+ students with a small amount of faculty, your teachers may not have time for the 1 on 1 experience.
I feel like the main differences the better diversity in a lot of these bigger colleges. You can find the in-group that you belong in. If it's a smaller college you're probably going to have a little bit more of a difficult time doing that. Bigger colleges also have a tendency of having more extracurriculars and fun things to do outside of college. But with a small college, you get more of a closeness with your other classmates and teachers. But that experience isn't necessarily taken away at bigger schools. I think it also depends on how well you put yourself out there. For example, if you go out to your teachers for hours and you try and talk to them you can get the same experience that you would receive at a small school. But the damn small school experience also really varies. There are really big schools that have an emphasis on close relationships and friendships. While there can be smaller schools that have an emphasis on being competitive and never collaborating with others. You should also take into consideration the actual nature of the school.
So small schools broadly speaking have less overall connections and less professional opportunities (research internships etc) but come with smaller class size. Big schools are like the inverse of small schools its larger class size with more professional opportunities. Additionally the campus likely has more amenities but that not a big deal as the city you're in also has it.
Also, a caveat of larger schools is if you are in a small major beyond the gen ed it will be smaller also there are programs that have a smaller class sizes such as honor programs.
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I’ve been in a school with >300 and <2,500. Honestly the bigger schools offer more ECs and classes making it more likely you’ll really find “your thing”. With smaller schools you’ll get to know your teachers and peers greater and maybe have an easier chance with awards and leadership positions. Biggest difference for me has been scholarship availability. My small school only offers a couple thousand in total scholarships while the big school I went to was almost hitting a million each year.