small campus, no problem!

when applying for schools in the US, many people believe that schools with a few students would not be as good as those with 1000 to 2000 students. this assumption, though, is not always true. people usually picture schools in the United States with the same idea, which comes from movies and TV shows. we imagine many different parties, sororities, fraternities, enormous classrooms, and so on, and everything seems so unreal and magical. well, most of what we see is real, but it is definitely not as dramatic as pictured in movies. it is definitely different if, just like me, you decide to attend a small, private school in a suburban area.

i currently attend a private high school in Danville, California. you might ask “where on earth is Danville? that sounds so strange”. exactly, i asked myself the same question when i first came to this school too. it just a small town in Norcal, 45 minutes away from San Francisco, and i just realized that Danville was named the safest town in California in 2020 (i’m so proud:)). back to my school, with about slightly more than 500 students but not all of us live on campus in a dorm. only 12% of students are boarding students, while most of our students are actually commuters and live at their families’ houses. this tiny suburban place makes our campus a lot quieter than big state or city campuses. having fewer people on campus actually makes it perfect to create better connections and form long-lasting friendships. in fact, my friends and I always stay in one of our rooms and just study or hang out together.

small campus does not mean that the school is boring. those small schools still offer everything that big schools do. we do like to have fun, and we do have some things just like in the movies. we have many different clubs and organizations on campus, so we do have different fun events every single day. we also have special events and parties throughout the year such as spirit week, sophomore dance, junior prom, and senior ball. those activities and events are all amazing in their own way, but the one that is unique from my school is an intense 28-day backpacking trip either in the desert or through the mountains.

in terms of academic aspects, a lot of students at my school could be able to get into many top schools or even ivy league schools. my school is also famous for organizing many service trips and for giving us the chance to volunteer a lot in the community. studying in the US is not all about the grades, but extracurricular also play a pivotal role in the evaluation criteria. i’m glad that my school offers a wide range of extracurricular activities that give students countless opportunities to gain more experience from life.

the school quality should not be determined by its size. so yes, i attend a small-sized school and there is no problem with that. indeed, i’m super happy. the campus life might not be the same as it is at bigger sized campuses, but i am sure that in every single school campus in the United States you will have some fun events and parties like you have dreamed to have while watching TV. trust me, even on small campuses, some days you will not want to leave campus at all because of the many fun events you will want to attend.