Student Life on a Small Campus

When people think about universities in the United States, everybody has the same idea, which comes from movies and TV shows. We imagine many different parties, sororities, fraternities, enormous classrooms, and so on, and everything seem 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 university.

I currently attend a Catholic university with at most 2,700 students but not all of us live on campus in a dorm. Most of our students are actually commuters and still live at their families’ houses, and we do not have Greek life (sororities or fraternities). This makes our campus a lot quieter than big state campuses. We only have four residence halls, so having less people on campus 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 together.

“Our school is also famous for organizing many service trips and for giving us the chance to volunteer a lot in the community.”

Do not get me wrong, we are not a boring campus. 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. I am part of the executive board for three different clubs, so when I say that we have a lot of events, I mean it. Each of our 30+ clubs on campus has at least one event per month, which adds up to a ton of events. The main organization on campus is called Campus Activities Board, and we have plenty of fun thanks to them. We always have a Welcome Back Bash on August and January with inflatables, laser tag, zip lines, shaved ice, face painters, and lots of free food and gadgets from the school. Also CAB, organizes the Halloween haunted house, the dance, a lot of different events to decorate sweaters, picture frames, note cards, create our mugs, and things like that. We tend to have some educational events too, which usually are conferences, talks, or career fairs, in which many firms and companies from the area come and connect with students in hope to hire some of us in the future. Our school is also famous for organizing many service trips and for giving us the chance to volunteer a lot in the community.

“In every single college campus in the United States you will have some fun events and parties like you have dreamed to have while watching TV.”

So yes, the campus life might not be the same as it is at UCLA, Harvard, UCSD, etc., but I am sure that in every single college campus in the United States you will have some fun events and parties like you have dreamed to have while watching TV. As I said, they might not be as extravagant and excessive as in the movies, but you won’t be going to school just to study. Trust me, some days you will not want to leave campus at all because of the many fun events you will want to attend. Oh, and for all of the free T-shirts and free food you will find around campus at all times.

Martina is an International Student from Italy, studying Management and Entrepreneurship at Newman University in Wichita, Kansas. She has always loved travelling, speaks four languages and is learning her fifth one! She enjoys sharing her experience abroad to inspire others to get out of their comfort zone and join her in the USA. Martina loves to stay busy in between classes and meet new people by leading multiple student associations and working on campus.

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