Dear Senior Prospective Student,
It’s April. Crunch time. You’ve applied to schools, big and small, and have gotten your acceptances. Your college decision is looming over your head. Each day, you come up with an official decision. The next day, your official decision no longer seems so official and you are ferried back to square one.
Does this sound familiar? It certainly does to me.
I was this high school senior; I could not seem to make the decision. I applied to over 10 schools hoping that in the time between applying and May 1st (the deposit deadline), clarity of where I should spend the next four years of my life would strike me. It never did. Mid-April, I was still majorly mulling over what I should do.
My dreams had always been big. I had played sports my whole life and loved that scene. Movies pictured fun, loud, sports games at Division I schools and it seemed like everything I wanted. State schools have everything: every club, every major, every society, everything you could want, or so I thought. In November, I was convinced that I was headed to University of Maryland to join my already established friends for the best four years of our lives.
Around April, my perspective changed. I visited several of the small schools I had been accepted to and I realized the difference. The small schools, especially Grove City, felt like home. Not all students were power-walking to class with their heads down and phones out. Instead, students stopped my tour guide on her way, said hi, and asked to catch up later. Grove City’s Office of Admissions remembered my name and asked to interview me (and all the other prospective students) to see what my fit at this school could look like. They invested in me.
Could people have invested in me at a large school? Absolutely. However, it is not as easy or valued at schools with zounds of students. You are only one face in a very large crowd.
Every professor that those students have had do not stop them in the hallways to say hi; my professors do.
Their college president may not know their names; mine does.
I asked several of my senior friends, “What do you think you’re going to miss most about this school?” All their answers are the same, “The community here.” Our community between students, professors, and faculty is rich, unparalleled and cherished.
So, if I could go back and tell my 17-year-old self anything, I would tell her to jump. Don’t look back. Maybe you are drawn to a school that is totally different than the college you imagined for yourself. That’s okay.
That small school called Grove City College will surpass every expectation that you had about college and will be some of the best years of your life.
