Small schools CAN be awesome, but many of them don't have the resources to offer even half of what you listed above. Lots of them can only keep the doors open by cutting back on programming - like sports, art programs, music programs, etc.
Iowa prep sets national record
- Thread starter tm3308
- Start date
Small schools CAN be awesome, but many of them don't have the resources to offer even half of what you listed above. Lots of them can only keep the doors open by cutting back on programming - like sports, art programs, music programs, etc.
Is this really so unbelievable that you had to ask twice? It's thirty fricking minutes.
For some maybe, but many are exactly what he described and can allow kids to partake in many more activities than a kid from a bigger school might get to do. The way I look at it is, for high school there's no doubt I'd rather go to a smaller school. For college, I'd definitely rather go to a bigger one.
I graduated with ~50 people in my class. You could easily graduate high school as a sophomore in college with all the college courses they offered. I only took 3 college courses in high school but a lot of my classmates took more. I had better education opportunities than my bigger city friends (Waukee & Cedar Falls) that I met in college. Obviously not every small school is like this but its not like my school is the only doing things like this. Also my school at the time had laptops for everyone and had the highest computer/student ratio in the state.
All schools in Iowa offer College Level classes for students through the Community Colleges. I graduated with a class of 24 and could have had at least a semester under my belt, and that was in 2007.
But the **** would want to graduate college early?
But the **** would want to graduate college early?
3A school is ideal size IMO, or a smaller 4A.
Big enough to have a lot of options for activities and still be successful/competitive, small enough to not get lost and be forced to specialize.
I imagine all of our opinions will be strongly colored by individual experience and how much we enjoyed them. But I couldn't imagine getting as much out of high school at a 1A school.
Big enough to have a lot of options for activities and still be successful/competitive, small enough to not get lost and be forced to specialize.
I imagine all of our opinions will be strongly colored by individual experience and how much we enjoyed them. But I couldn't imagine getting as much out of high school at a 1A school.
let me sum up this thread.
i went to a small school = small schools are better
i went to a big school = big schools are better
i went to a small school = small schools are better
i went to a big school = big schools are better
Correct, I graduated HS With over 20 college credits without having to put in any effort. Those 20 credits savede 10K or more as I would've had to stay at ISU another semester.
We had a class of 43 and that was the largest the school had seen in a longgg time. Going to a smaller school allowed you to play any sport you wanted. While it's not as big time as the 3A and 4A, the fan support especially in FB was insane for a small town.
There isn't much to do in small towns, but it is what you make it it. Personally I would rather have a small group of really close friends instead of a ton of good acquaintances. Plus being in from small town, you were able to get away with a lot more. Fewer cops to catch the underage drinking. And who didn't love road parties and booze cruising back in th day?
Yeah, more hot chicks that want nothing to do with you. In my experience, high school girls go for 2 types of guys - 1. Upperclassmen 2. Dudes from other schools.
I may be the exception. I went to Ankeny and, looking back, I see more advantages of going to a smaller school, especially in regards to athletics. I'm 26 now so I graduated well before Ankeny split into 2 high school so it might be better now. The only benefit I saw, which has already been mentioned, was that I was able to graduate with 22 hours of college credit.
I went to a private school with exactly 1,300 students. Enrollment-wise we were 4A but played up in sports to 5A.
There were tons of extra-curriculars to participate in and since I lived in the middle of a metro with 3 million people there were always things to do. I didn't drink in high school so "booze cruising" wouldn't have mattered.
There were tons of extra-curriculars to participate in and since I lived in the middle of a metro with 3 million people there were always things to do. I didn't drink in high school so "booze cruising" wouldn't have mattered.
I graduated with 22 kids. 4 of them were foreign exchange students. I didnt know of any schools in my area that had nearly the exchange program we had. I also graduated with 32 college credits and came into ISU as a sophomore.
I went to Newton, back when it was 4A, and thought it was about perfect. It was one of the smaller 4A schools with around 200-250 kids/class. I don't think I would want to go to a school much smaller than that, at least nothing under 3A. I also wouldn't want to go to those huge high schools. New Trier HS and Lane Tech College Prep over here on the north side of Chicago each have more than 4,000 students. Way too big for a high school.
I spent my first years of teaching at a "smaller school" which was a 3A school. Even at 3A it was much smaller than I was used to as I graduated from one of the bigger 4A schools. I could never imagine going to a school smaller than that through high school. I graduated with almost 400 and I'm pretty sure I knew at least everyone's first name in my graduating class.
IMO smaller schools are incredibly cliquey. I'm not just talking about groups in school. Parents/teachers/administrators all have their own groups and if you don't belong to those groups or don't fit into that group you are pretty much shunned. Rumors happen much more frequently and spread much faster. My best example is as follows:
I coached freshman football and we played a game in Dewitt. I had a certain lady friend (friends and nothing more) that came to watch the game. After the game, I approached her, gave a hug, we talked for maybe a total of 3 minutes and then I hopped on the bus. On the way home the kids asked me who my girlfriend was. I told them it was a girl I knew from college and certainly not my girlfriend. By the next morning, I had parents emailing me to tell me that making out with a girl during a football game I was supposed to be coaching was not acceptable. During the same day I got called to my principals office to hear the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part, most of the kids I taught were great kids and I had a lot of fun those years, but it was certainly not something I would have liked to experience growing up. From my perspective, any sort of "gathering" outside of school had to include alcohol. This was true for students, parents, and teachers. Underage drinking was not something that was frowned upon, nor was it kept in the dark. Heck, the principal's daughter would have parties in their basement that he knew about. Of the kids who went off to college, they still hang out with the same group of friends. Those who didn't go to school or stayed close to home will never make it out of living in their home towns.
IMO smaller schools are incredibly cliquey. I'm not just talking about groups in school. Parents/teachers/administrators all have their own groups and if you don't belong to those groups or don't fit into that group you are pretty much shunned. Rumors happen much more frequently and spread much faster. My best example is as follows:
I coached freshman football and we played a game in Dewitt. I had a certain lady friend (friends and nothing more) that came to watch the game. After the game, I approached her, gave a hug, we talked for maybe a total of 3 minutes and then I hopped on the bus. On the way home the kids asked me who my girlfriend was. I told them it was a girl I knew from college and certainly not my girlfriend. By the next morning, I had parents emailing me to tell me that making out with a girl during a football game I was supposed to be coaching was not acceptable. During the same day I got called to my principals office to hear the same thing.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part, most of the kids I taught were great kids and I had a lot of fun those years, but it was certainly not something I would have liked to experience growing up. From my perspective, any sort of "gathering" outside of school had to include alcohol. This was true for students, parents, and teachers. Underage drinking was not something that was frowned upon, nor was it kept in the dark. Heck, the principal's daughter would have parties in their basement that he knew about. Of the kids who went off to college, they still hang out with the same group of friends. Those who didn't go to school or stayed close to home will never make it out of living in their home towns.
That's what Urbandale is. I love Urbandale but even it is pretty big. I think the best thing is to live close enough to a big city that you can get there easily but far enough away that you can do stuff without bothering or being bothered by others.
30 in my class (including a foreign exchange student). It was very clique-y and I don't miss that aspect at all. The education was fine because, well, it was in Iowa. We never had any opportunities to get college credits, but it wasn't very common back in the day. I think there are classes now offering college credits. I would have loved that option.
I miss certain small town aspects, but I would never go back. I am glad that there are people that embrace it, though. I think the small town culture is an important part of the Midwest and our country.
I miss certain small town aspects, but I would never go back. I am glad that there are people that embrace it, though. I think the small town culture is an important part of the Midwest and our country.
Graduated with around 50. I don't remember ever wishing I was at a bigger school. I was super active and participated in a lot things that I probably wouldn't have if I was at a bigger school. I can see there being advantages to both situations. We were never bored, but that is probably because we were always in a sport, and also had other extracurriculars going on. I will say this, living in small town until I was 18 was okay, but now I couldn't do it. Although if I did move back home I would get to play more golf than I do now.
From my experience at ISU, it seemed like this statement applied more to small-school people than to those from larger schools. The people who came from a small high school that sent a ton of students to Iowa State seemed to be the most "insular" in their social groups.
I'm guessing that's because the adjustment to a school like ISU is a bigger change for them so they lean more on the parts of their life that haven't changed so significantly.
