How'd You Make the Choice?
Student: "I visited [a large research university], I visited [another large research university], and I visited [my school]. I liked the personality, the smallness, of [my school]...they made me feel like I was important and that I was going to fit there and belong there at some point or another. It almost seemed like [the large research universities] had to fill a quota, like they had to have a certain number of students, and I was just one of potentially tens of thousands that could make it. So they knew that they would get all of the people they needed and they didn't really care whether I was there or not. [My school], on the other hand, made me feel like, "We had a thousand applicants and you are one of the two hundred that we accepted and are giving money to and we think that you are intellectually good enough to go here."
Student: "If I waved to everybody that I know on campus that would probably amount to 90% of the student body…[My school's] slogan should be 'Where everybody knows your name.'"
Student: "There's no real room to hide behind closed doors on a campus this size. The smallness of this place makes it really hard to fall through the cracks."
Student: "I made my choice based on football and I knew if I was going to play football I would have to lean towards the smaller schools…I wanted to be able to play early on and not have to wait until my junior or senior year to be successful on the field."
Student: "Because of the small living quarters and the size of campus you are sort of forced to be supportive. You walk by another student and say things like, 'Do you have a final exam today? Well, good luck,' It's just naturally supportive because you feel like part of a community."