That is the very high end of urban campuses in acreage.
Adding…,for one of my kids, top two colleges were Santa Clara and U of South Carolina.
For the other kid it was between Boston University and New England Conservatory.
Clearly…,programs meant more than size.
I think some like small and some like big! I had two that really didn’t see themselves on a big U campus and one who craved it.
For me, it is not only the size of the campus but the size of the city. Small and Small? Not for me. A small school that is part of a consortium, or in a nice sized city with a lot of other activities (sports, theater, concerts)? That’s a better fit for me.
When I was a grad student at Columbia I lived a block away and spent 90% of my time in one building. Of course, in many ways NYC was our campus!
I think I’d explore a bit whether she can take advantage of the Consortium if she starts to feel like she needs more. I’ve heard mixed reports on how much people take advantage of it. Everyone I know who went to Clark was very happy there, FWIW.
My D graduated in a class of less than 100 so any college was going to be larger lol. She wanted a smaller LAC (less than 4000) and was opposed to UMAmherst because of its size but it had to be on the list as a safety financially. Her wish list though included being walking distance to a decent town center. Her school as 2800 students and is a 15 minute walk to a great center.
I wouldn’t discount a physically large campus because you prefer a physically smaller one either. After the first year or so, you’re going to spend most of your time in classes related to your major, which means you’re going to spend most of your time in one building. I went to a huge campus and I can honestly say I didn’t set foot in more than half of the buildings. I’m somewhat lazy and chose to live in a dorm that was near the building where all of my journalism classes were. My own little world probably consisted of about two square blocks.
To me, the physical size is one thing,…but are they happy with the size of the student body?
Do they prefer a more intimate setting where it is easier to get to know professors and students…or one where there is a larger number of students and more opportunities?
I am reminded of when we visited Ursinus ~2000 students and on the tour we stopped into a Biology class and the tour guide said hi to the professor vs. Rutgers where you took the tour on a bus.
For my DD2, that smaller vibe was less anxiety inducing. For my DD1, she wanted to not stand out so much and be part of a bigger crowd.
Neither is right or wrong…what does the student prefer?
S1 toured Whitworth which is about the same size as Clark but on the opposite side of the country. Small buildings, small dorms, small campus all reminded him too much of his high school. Being in the middle of a residential area did not help. It was a definite deal breaker and the end of small college consideration for him.
He went to a decent sized state school more his style with D1 sports and a marching band.
Getting to know professors and student peers is done at large U’s as well as small ones. You get to know the students in your classes, who often have the same courses and sections that fit each other. Honors means much smaller classes at flagship U’s and mean professor taught classes where the prof knows the students. A great campus has enough going on in its sphere that the rest of the city/town is irrelevant.
The OP’s son may like a lot about Clark but needs to keep looking at other schools since its size bothered him. It sounded like he had discovered everything he wanted to in less than a day. Another campus may be better for him. The old different strokes for different folks line, one size doesn’t fit all…
@NJEngineer3: It would be interesting for your daughter to compare Seattle University, 48 acre campus with 4,532 undergraduate students, to Clark University with 50 acres and 2,220 undergraduate students. About 2,000 (45%) undergraduates live on the Seattle University campus, whereas 1,534 undergraduate students (69%) live on campus at Clark University.
Both urban settings, but dramatically different cities. Seattle University has a beautiful setting in a very upscale city.
I don’t know if either of my daughters thought any schools they visited were too small physically. They both ended up at schools not much larger (in enrollment) than their high school, which has about 2,000 students, and both were happy with their choices.
I thought the Macalester campus was too small, but my younger daughter disagreed.
I went to U.W. Madison, didn’t mind the sprawling campus, and liked the huge number of students.
It really does depend on your student. My daughter was looking at small CTCL causes and anything larger would have been daunting. (After 3 years of not going to school she is starting a class at CC this week). My son however wanted a big campus but not our state flagship 50,000 student school. He ended up at an OOS State school with 23,000 including graduate students. It is a compact campus and he loves everything seems close. He doesn’t have to take buses or his bike or anything to his classes. He says it feels much smaller and close-knit than he would have expected. He is close to some of his professor and found people immediately!
My son at big ten 50,000 students school and my daughter went to a private performing art high school with total student enrollment of 145. The entire school. So she first went to a LAC with about 2,000 students. That was big for her. She transferred to a smaller LAC of about 1300 students but the campus is bigger and feels bigger… She states the huge advantage is in the winter rolling out of bed and being in classes in like 6 minutes… She also has had close relationships with professors etc. Many will offer going for coffee or coming over for dinner to discuss their projects. She loves this type of personal interaction. Just seems easier and more acceptable at smaller schools.
I went to a university with 5,000 undergrads and even back in the dark ages, I had regular coffees and dinners with professors. My kids went to universities of about similar sizes and had even more personal contact, relationships with faculty than I did. I don’t agree that this is “easier and more acceptable” at small schools-- it depends on the kid, the professors, the university. My spouse went to a university about 5 times bigger than mine and he was close to professors for decades after graduating. This does not seem size dependent.
Last year I attended commencement for a cousin at a Big Ten university (huge football stadium, the TV screens, the whole huge university experience). During the departmental tea/reception afterwards I was stunned by the number of professors who came over to give my cousin a hug, ask to be introduced to the family, and wanted to share a personal anecdote from the last four years. This is one of the largest university’s in the country btw, and one of the other cousins joked, “When did you have time to drink and go to parties if you spent so much time hanging out with your professors?” which was pretty funny.
I started college at a school with 14,000 students (1,200 acres). Quickly learned it was too big for my liking and transferred So. year to a school with 1,400 (200 acres). Best decision I ever made. To each their own.
I think one thing that gets overlooked in the big/small debate is major size. Who gets to know their professors better, 1) the English major at Kenyon (80 graduates per year) or 2) the Philosophy major at tOSU (26 grads/year)?
Is your child’s issue the size of the physical campus itself or of the student body?
If the issue is the campus size itself:
What does your child want more of? More quads with grass and trees? Longer walks for exercise? Figure out what he is looking for and find colleges that match it.
If the issue is the student body:
@Otterma wrote
I agree. That is key. The Long Island public high schools in the districts in which I have worked and lived are smaller than Williams College anyway. But even if you are used to a big high school, the key difference is that, in high school, you have only a small group of kids taking all the honors classes with you and joining the same clubs you do, and a host of other people you interact with maybe only in gym class. In college, as Otterma noted, there are so many more kids who are your intellectual peers, so it feels like a much bigger social circle in college than in high school, even at a small college. And small colleges have a fantastic sense of community. But some may prefer the relative anonymity and privacy, and the chance to reinvent yourself repeatedly, that a larger campus community allows.
It was the physical campus. I think as the college search continues, she may realize that other factors could be more important.
Clark is one of my favorite schools. I remember sitting in the admissions waiting room at Dartmouth and everyone was talking about Clark! I liked the curriculum and some of the majors, the freshman seminars, the international students providing some diversity, and the commitment to the city and neighborhood (award winning school for instance). Clark is one of the Colleges that Change Lives and has been for years. I can’t speak to size: I wouldn’t consider the brick buildings as defining the experience since there are other buildings and the whole city. WPI and Holy Cross are part of the consortium, I believe.