My roommate story continues this semester as my newest roommate, a transfer student who moved into the room my best friend vacated when she went abroad, packed up and dropped out last week. It was very sudden and unexpected, but there were external factors, and she was struggling to acclimate to such a large school. Sometimes it can’t be helped. It made me think, though, about what I like about going to a “large” university, with a little over twenty thousand students. I do like it, a lot, but I know that it’s not for everyone.
I like the anonymity that comes with going to a school where you can’t possibly know even a third of the population. It means that you meet new people every day – your classes are full of new faces. As I get more specialized in my major and take fewer gen-eds, I’m finding that I see more and more familiar faces, but even in classes of thirty there are always people I haven’t met. I like walking down the promenade in my own little world, getting my coffee and heading to class among people who are also doing their own thing.
Another thing that I like about going to such a big school is that it allows for a lot of diversity in extracurriculars. If I went to a school that had five thousand people in it, I probably wouldn’t have my pick of six different environmental clubs, each which focus on and do different things. I certainly couldn’t login to OrgSync, a portal for student organizations on campus, and find over three hundred different student organizations.
Around 70 of them are just greek life, meaning that there are 70 different social, leadership, or professional fraternities or sororities at your fingertips. If, like me, greek life isn’t your jam, that leaves just about 250 other things for you to try. Want to try hosting a radio show? We’ve got that. Want to join a religious club focused on outreach in the community? There’s a bunch. Want to write for a student publication about politics? Music? lifestyle? Campus news? Jerk magazine, 20 Watts, Equal Time, and the Daily Orange are all waiting for your voice. With so many clubs and orgs, it’s so easy to make your Syracuse experience unique, and find people who like the same things you do.
Even outside of clubs and organizations, with twenty thousand students – around fifteen thousand undergrads – there’s so much room to find other people like you. I can’t imagine that, if I’d gone to a small school, I’d have been able to pull together around ten other people willing to sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons with me. I’ve carved out my spot here at SU, and even though the University is big, I’ve never felt like I couldn’t find my people.
Meg Burnard ’20 is studying Communication Sciences and Disorders and Linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences. She grew up in Rochester, New York. Meg is a member of Democracy Matters, and in her free time she enjoys reading comics, going to concerts, and playing games with friends. More blogs from Meg Burnard.