Small town..

unareina · 01-18-2009, 08:24 AM

What's it like to live in a rural community?

I live in a city with a population of nearly 2 million and the prospect of spending four years in a village/small town/rural community gives me the creeps!!

I applied to Colgate because there are many aspects I like about it, but this is its biggest disadvantage in my opinion..

Dave_Berry · 01-18-2009, 08:33 AM

You're in for a culture shock. Did you visit campus before you applied? If so, could you picture yourself there for most of for years? What did the Colgate students say about life in a small community?

unareina · 01-18-2009, 08:35 AM

I don't live in the US and didn't have the opportunity to visit the universities i applied to... I forgot to mention that, sorry

Modadunn · 01-18-2009, 10:17 AM

Let's put it this way.. a small town in the united states is not a village as described elsewhere around the world

floee · 01-18-2009, 10:30 AM

I've lived in a small town basically all my life. My graduating class has 230 people, I think. I've gone to school with half of my grade for seven years (since middle school), and a quarter of them since elementary school.
While I know it will be different in college because it's impossible for that to happen at a place like Colgate, there's several things that probably will happen.
You will most likely know the majority of people in your class after the first semester or so. I was going through my senior class picture the other day, and there was only one person whose name I didn't know. This could be good or could be bad, based on the type of person you are. Most of the time I like it.
Also, rumors will probably travel very fast. While it hopefully won't be like at my high school, where we all know everyone's business, rumors generally spread like wildfire about anything big that happens. This is kind of bad/annoying, but you learn to deal with it generally.
From what I've heard about people at Colgate though, there's very little unsaid social hierarchy-type stuff going on, which is usually what happens in a small student body. While it may be a breeding ground for rumors and you may seem to know everyone, you'll be able to truly experience what a community is like. The great thing about a small community is that it's very hard for you to just "fall through the cracks". People are usually there to support you when you need it and you'll be there for people too. If you're just having a bad day, I doubt there will be people there who just want to make it worse; people will probably actually just want to make it better.
So, there's the unedited truth in my opinion. There's some bad and some good, but honestly it's mostly good. Again, it's just your personal opinion. Someone with a similar experience as mine might completely disagree with me and hate everything about small towns.

Just as a note - the only schools I'm applying to are small. I refuse to go to a big university because community is too important to me. I feel that I'd be lost at a huge university. Again, just my opinion.

Good luck!

unareina · 01-18-2009, 04:19 PM

That was very insightful, thank you!

lydia08 · 01-19-2009, 01:36 AM

Having been a student at Colgate, I can tell you that it is definitely not that small! With 740 in your incoming class, you'll probably still be meeting people in your class even in your senior year. You'll end up good friends with people that you didn't even know your first year. You won't know everyone's name, but you'll feel at home - you'll see 10 people you know and will stop to say "hi" to them on the way across campus. I came from a small school (114 in my graduating class) but lived in a big city, and I thought Colgate was the perfect size. It's small enough that you're not a number - the dean of Admissions (Gary Ross!) knows... everyone there. You have an orientation group of 18 and have an upperclassman to show you around, as well as a professor who's your adviser until you declare your major. People make friends quickly and settle into groups (which can and do change year to year), but there's enough people that there isn't a high school hierarchy at all. The rumor mill probably varies considerably depending on your group of friends, but it was nothing at all compared to high school. It was very, very different.

The town itself is cute and has everything you'd ever need. There's usually so much going on on campus that the size of the town is never an issue. There's tons of school sponsored events, performances, movie showings, etc. There's several bars in town for the upperclassmen and a... place called "The Jug" that's popular with first years. The town is incredibly safe, as is campus. It's a charming little college town. Yes it doesn't have fantastic shopping (that's only 45 minutes away in Syracuse in a huge mall) or the nightlife of NYC, but you won't notice. Everyone is so busy with their lives on campus that they wouldn't have time to go to all that stuff anyway.

I've heard it said that you only get the chance to have the "real" college experience (small town, pretty, tight-knit campus) once in your life, while the big city is there forever. Having moved from Seattle, WA to Hamilton, NY to New York, NY, I can tell you it's more than worth it. I often miss the beautiful campus, real nature, the lack of constant noise, the incredibly nice people and being able to leave your bag somewhere for more than a second...

NealJ2K · 01-19-2009, 12:14 PM

Hahaha, you guys don't know small towns =P ... 230 people per class?? That's huge where I am from. Try having 30 in your graduating class

floee · 01-19-2009, 01:06 PM

Oh, we're a magnet school and we bus people from around the county. If not, our school would close. I'm pretty sure that 3/4 of our student body has made fun of the excessive amount of cows and farmland we have. You can walk from one end of town to the other in about ten minutes, I think. =]

ticklemepink · 01-20-2009, 10:33 PM

My dad was a big-city boy and never wanted to return to the city after 4 years at Colgate. He did have to go back to his home city for a job but once he married my mother, he moved right back to the semi-rural area.

If you've lived in a city in all your life, chances are you've never experienced the feeling having SPACE around you. I know of other Colgate alums who discovered this as well and didn't look too forward to going back to their cramped, crowded cities.

GossipGirl17 · 02-03-2009, 09:08 AM

i live in nyc and have 68 in my graduating class, although I do go to a private school

gellino · 02-07-2009, 02:15 PM

You will not know a majority of your class by the end of the first semester.