A few weeks ago, my math class joined with another class for a lecture. At the end of the lecture, our professor asked us to turn in a piece of paper with something good or something bad about the lecture written on it. As I was thinking about what to write, I glanced to my right and saw written on my neighbor’s paper “TOO MANY PEOPLE” across the entire page. There were roughly seventy people in the lecture hall.

It was at that moment that I began to contemplate what it would’ve been like to go to a big university. What would it be like to sit in a lecture hall with 400 other students for several hours each day? What would be different if I had chosen a school with twenty or thirty thousand undergraduate students? The entire population of my college, Harvey Mudd, is less than 800 students. My biggest class has approximately fifty students, and that seems big to me.

During a college visit two years ago, I went to a biology lecture with about 300 people in attendance. The professor stood in front of the class explaining slides, writing equations on the chalkboard, and answering a few questions here and there. My biology class this year has nineteen students in it. My professor uses slides, but they contain only a heading or graphic with no additional information. For every piece of information, she gives us a starting point, asks us questions to get us thinking, and then gives us the details of the subject. This type of discussion would not be possible in a class of 300.

I would say size is one of the biggest things that defines the characteristics of a college. At a small school, students tend to have numerous classes with the same group of people and can more easily discuss material in class with their peers. At a large university, students will more often attend lectures and see different groups of people wherever they go. The size of the college contributes to the community, traditions, pride, and so much more at any given school. For example, at a large school you are more likely to find huge groups of students clad in school colors (no matter how awful the colors are) carrying flags and pom-poms to support their team on game day. At a small school students may or may not know when football or basketball games are played, or if the school even has a team, but they will know when and where to find the weekly barbeque, or what month to expect the annual freshman vs. sophomore games.

I chose a small college, and have not once regretted my decision, but I may never have the large university experience. Many of my friends chose large universities and are perfectly happy as well. So what do you think, which is better?

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