An Adventure Lending Itself to Comparisons

Over Spring Break I had a chance to go to the UW-Madison campus to visit a high school friend.  She had class when I was there and I was fortunate enough to attend a Zoology lecture with 400 students (which is larger than my incoming class at Coe!).  It was interesting experience and allowed me to reflect on the advantages Coe has being a smaller school.

• Small class sizes: This semester my largest class has 17 (I think) kids and my smallest has seven.  I love that because there is a lot of good time with the professor and I also get to know the other students in my class.  
• Walking distance: My friend said the longest she has to walk to a class is fifteen minutes and she always has to pack her backpack in the morning because there is very little time to go back.  At Coe, that's not the case.  I can walk anywhere on campus in five minutes and only have to take class material for several classes when they are in the same building in back to back hours.  But if I needed, I could run back to Murray and pick up what I forgot.  
• No set meal plan: At Coe it's simple, 20, 16, or 11 meals.  At Madison you have your WiscCard which is basically a student ID with money on it.  That card is your life (just like our ID card is our life at Coe, we can't get into an residence halls without it or get food in the PUB or caf) and you use it to buy food at the various cafeteria locations.  At Coe the caf is all you can eat but at the cafeteria's on Madison's campus everything has a price so unlimited food is kind of out of the picture.  
• TAs and two professors: In a bigger school such as Madison, TAs are commonplace.  I don't have anything against TAs but I would prefer to talk to and have my paper and exams graded by the professor who has spent many years learning and discovering more about their area of expertise.  In my friend's Zoology lecture, she told me the professor standing in front of us today wasn't going to be her professor in two weeks and instead a male professor would lead the class until the end of the semester.  I thought this was intriguing because I can't imagine having only Gina (British Literature), Joyce (French), Terry (Fantasy), or Gordon (Honors) for only half a semester.  In a lecture class that big you don't become close to your professor so I guess I can see that having a new one wouldn't totally throw my friend for a loop.  But for me, I like developing a student-teacher interactions with my professors.  I ask them for help when I need it and look to them for advice. 

I had a great day on Madison's campus but it made me appreciate Coe so much more than I already do.  It affirmed my belief that I needed a small college.  Coe is the perfect size for me so I encourage all prospective students to look at both big and small schools to know which one is going to be better for you!