Little fish in an enormous pond

scmom12
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 03:29:52 +0000

I’m another that thinks you can have a lot of luck finding your exact type of student at a big school. A large school this size is like a small city and you don’t try to be friends or do everything in a city - you find a special neighborhood, coffee shop, church, etc that fits your life. You can find your “small college” group in several ways.

The first small experience you’re likely to have is your freshman dorm. That is a manageable number of people to meet. You may make a best friend or you may just make some acquaintances who, like you, need another soul to be around while learning about college. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to find a best friend - introverts (my D is one) don’t always like huge groups and sometimes it takes time to find one or two close friends.

Second is your major. Now depending on what it is you may not get into smaller focused classes until later, but sometimes there are department things to get involved in. Agree with stopping by offices and meeting professors. A good plan for every college student.

Try an interest group as a way to make your school seem smaller. It might be an interest group, like student government or debate or a religious group. Service groups are also good and sometimes schools have days of service/service Saturday type things.

It may seem counterintuitive, but I found with my two Ds that the one at big school had more opportunities for leadership than one at small, selective school (very competitive for everything from singing groups to orientation leaders). There are just some many more things to choose from.

Good luck.