Coming into my freshman year at Ferris, I knew that it was the epitome of a small school. Yes, the school has roughly 14,000 students, similar to that of a school like Central Michigan University, but it’s more about the feel than the number of students.
As you all may know, there is not a single place on campus that is too far from you that you can’t walk there. Also, the school is primarily a Division II school when it comes to athletics. That of course does not include hockey, where we as a school are Division I.
I mean heck, we don’t even have a baseball team or a men’s soccer team.
Now, when I came in as a freshman, I thought being at a small school was only a negative. I now realize that there are some definite upsides.
For example, it’s nice to have a sense of familiarity for all parts of the campus. It certainly helps to make the campus feel like a second home. A big part of that is the ability to see people you know. It’s fairly common in a place such as Ferris to meet people and see them numerous times throughout the rest of your time here, whether it be in the dining halls, in classes, or even living in the same residence halls.
Another part of this is the fact that you tend to grow close to the group of people you see on a daily basis. This could just be the group of people you see and hang out with all the time in your hall lobby.
Of course, you do have to give up the hopes of being in a packed football stadium of 50,000 or more people. And yes, the basketball games aren’t at the intensity level of games at Michigan State’s “Izzone.” That however, doesn’t make the sporting events not enjoyable. In fact, it gives the event more of a pure sort of feeling as opposed to big time collegiate events.
As a bonus, you get all the advantages mentioned above on top of that pure feeling. Add all of those together, and you start to think of Ferris as less of a small school and more of a large home.