Indiana Bloomington vs Penn State UP

mom2collegekids
Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:14:17 +0000

*As far as high school friends being at the same school, goodness! These are huge student bodies. You could easily go all four years and never run into someone from your high school. And even if you do, so what? The odds of having the same classes or even being in the same section of a dorm are very small, and thus you won’t interact with them that much anyway. If they join the same sorority or are in the same club, then OK they will see them but they will also be making tons of new friends. This factor should be completely ignored.
*

I think that when going to a big college, it can be pleasant to occasionally run into someone from high school. Yes, you can rarely run into an old school chum, or you can purposely arrange to do things with some.

While I would never recommend choosing a school based on where a BF or GF is going, I could see choosing a school based on knowing that there will be some familiar faces there - if the student is the type to have a harder time making new friends.

Some kids have NO problems making new friends. Some do. Some need to have some current friends around to help make the transition more pleasant.

Every fall we see posts from parents (or students) who “hate” their new school, because that student is not a “joiner” or doesn’t make new friends easily. Often, those kids end up transferring back to a school where their friends are.

So, it can depend on the student and his/her personality.