What Size school is the right fit for you?

When considering which school is the right for you, size should be in your top factors to consider.  The size of the school affects many components of your overall experience- do you want small class sizes all the way through?  Are you looking for a school that specializes in a field of study or are you looking for more variety? Do you want a large selection of extracurricular activities? Are you looking for a national and vast alumni base? Are you looking for research opportunities as an undergrad?  All of these are affected by how small or large of a school you pick. So let’s review some of the pros and cons of each school size choice.

SMALL SCHOOLS
To be considered a small school, the student body (undergraduates, graduates, PhD candidates) is under 5,000 students.  Examples would be: Amherst College, the Claremont Colleges, or Regis University.  More often than not these will be colleges rather than universities (see last week’s post for how these differ), and focus on one area of study such as the liberal arts or engineering.  Small student bodies leads to better student-to-professor ratio, ability to obtain required classes, and creates an intimate college experience- giving you a better chance of having a class, running into someone on campus or living near most of the people within your year.  This can be a positive or negative characteristic- depending on your personality and how social of a person you would like to be.  These schools have an inherent community built in and therefore don’t offer as many extracurriculars as you would find in a larger school.  However, for some the anxiety from larger groups or the number of options is too overwhelming and therefore the smaller student body and selection of activities is a huge plus.  More often than not, students are able to live in  on-campus housing for all four years of school and don’t necessarily have to search for off campus housing options.  Additionally, smaller universities create a close knit and active alumni network for current students to benefit from; compared to larger universities who’s networks may be vast but usually are as active with current students.  Lastly, small schools tend to be private institutions with more expensive tuition and costs of living (given the fewer options for students) compared to larger public schools. 

MID-SIZE SCHOOLS
Mid-size schools are between 5,000 and 15,000 students, examples would be Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, or Boston College. They can be geographically in suburban areas or in the middle of a major city.  They offer a good variety of majors and minors in a broad selection of fields.  The professors are still active in their respective fields but aren’t as focused on research or publications.  As an incoming freshman you won’t have the same opportunity to get to know most of your cohort as with smaller schools but you will get to know more of those within your major as you get into more specialized courses.  Students also have more on and off campus housing options- dorms, greek houses, apartments (both campus own and private), or houses.  Making it easier for you to budget living expenses throughout your college years.  Additionally, students have a variety of student organizations, clubs, and intramural sports to join as extracurriculars.  However, since these schools don’t focus on research there is less opportunity for internships or experience within a desired field- for example working within a lab or working on a study under a publishing professor.  These schools are usually more selective in admission and have very large class sizes during the completion of general requirements. But overall they combine aspects of both the smaller and larger institutions. 

​LARGE SCHOOLS
When speaking of large schools, we are talking about schools with over 15,000 students- University of Michigan, New York University, or University of California at Berkeley are a few examples.   These schools typically meet the definition of a University (see previous post) and are leading the development of many fields of studies through their laboratories, hospitals, and field research.  Additionally, these schools are leading the way in college athletics (think D1 in pretty much any sport) as well as offering club and intramural teams.  Given the large diversity of the student body, they offer the housing options of the mid-size schools but also have the ability to provide more specialized housing options, such as all female/male or LBGT only dorms.  However, given the vast size of each incoming class it is impossible for you to know everyone within your year or major.  Unlike the nature of smaller schools, it will be completely on you to create your community within these schools but you have a variety of ways to do so- whether it be from classes, the wide selection of extracurriculars, on campus internships, the student section at football games, work study, the greek system, semester abroad, or the dorms!  The possibilities are endless with such a large network within the campus.  Upon graduation you can continue to make connections through these University nationwide alumni networks and local city chapters.  However, the downside of these types of schools is the ratio of student to professors is quite large, in fact you may find it easier to interact with your Graduate Student Instructor than your professor.   Competition for spots in classes is as competitive as it is for get into specific programs.  Admission to these Universities doesn’t always guarantee admission into your desired program, so it is best to have a backup program or major in mind.