Choosing colleges can be an extreme challenge when you’re a senior, transfer, or first year. With this challenge comes stress, especially if you have no clue what to look for, which was my problem. Neither one of my parents went to college. I went into college tours having no clue what questions to ask while other students seemed to have it all figured out. I felt completely lost. How was I going to be able to choose without having the right questions to ask? If you feel the same way, then you’re in the right spot. Here’s a set of questions that can help you get a feel for the campus when on a tour:
- How big are classes here?
This question can help you realize if you’ll be a name or just another number, and if you’ll be comfortable enough to learn. My high school was extremely small, to the point where I only graduated with 200 classmates, so all of my classes were small. I knew that having those sized classes helped me learn, so I did not want to come into a college where I had to sit with 100 other students on a daily basis for the next four years. I knew I couldn’t learn that way. I needed to have the ability to talk to the professor and develop a relationship in order to feel comfortable. I would not be able to do this in bigger sized classes. Here at Rutgers—Camden our typical class size is 15 students, so you’ll know that you aren’t just another statistic. - Is it easy to get around campus?
This will help you gather a sense of how big the campus is. You can decide on whether you want to walk 10 or 20 minutes to class or maybe even taking a shuttle. Like I have said before, I came from a small high school. We only had one floor for all of us, so going to almost any college was going to be a drastic change for me. I knew I wanted to be able to get to where I need to be within a matter of minutes instead of using a shuttle. Rutgers—Camden has 29-acres with the majority of the buildings within a 5 to 10 minute walk of each other. Plus, if you don’t feel like walking around you can hop onto the Rutgers shuttle to go wherever you need to. The shuttle is constantly going throughout the day. This made me feel like I already knew exactly where I was going and was confident that I was not going to be late for any of my classes (rain or shine). - What is it like to live on campus?
This will help you get a feel for what current students think and also what the campus provides for their students. If the current students don’t have much to say about events that are hosted and have major complaints, then the school might not have all the things you may want in order to live on campus happily. Living on your own is difficult and you want to make sure that your college has all the resources to help you. Before college, I had never lived without either one of my parents, but I knew that I wanted to go out and get that college experience that everyone talks about. At Rutgers—Camden, they offer you everything that you may need for living on your own, one such example being the food pantry. This resource helps all students with food whenever they may need it. Rutgers also hosts all kinds of events that deal with mental health or just offer some fun. Every semester there are therapy dogs that come to campus, because Rutgers knows that college can be a very stressful time — not just because of the school work, but because for some students, it’s their first time being out on their own. In the end, there is always something to do on campus. Not to mention, Philadelphia is right across the bridge if you don’t feel like going to some of the events offered. Overall, Rutgers—Camden has more to offer not just because it has so many different resources, but because of its location. - How’s the food?
This can tell you if you want to take food to campus, buy your own, or eat in. To be honest, I always brought my lunch in high school due to two reasons: one, the lunch food looked like it just came out of a freezer or it just looked plain out sad, and two, there were barely any options to choose from. In college, I knew I wanted to make sure that I had a variety of options to choose from other than the same brown chicken sandwich that I would have gotten in high school. Rutgers—Camden has so many different options. Almost every week there is something different. Some weeks there’s Spanish food then the next there’s Asian foods or food from a nearby organization. There’s also times where you can make your own food like making your very own cupcake. Plus, there are always amazing food trucks that are on campus too, and of course there’s Philadelphia with all the food works. If you and your friends want to go out to a fancy dinner you don’t have to travel as far as you might have. - Was it hard to make friends?
This question will help you to figure out what the atmosphere is like on campus. Environments change from college to college. Some you can just tell students are extremely stressed while others may seem too laid-back. Coming in, I knew I wanted to surround myself with other students like me who were focused, but willing to break out of their comfort zone from time to time. I didn’t want an atmosphere where I could just
feel the stress coming off of others. I wanted some place where I felt comfortable enough to walk up to someone and start talking. I was able to do this at Rutgers—Camden. The environment here was made to help students in the best way possible and the students themselves really radiate that energy. You can tell students are not extremely stressed because they feel as though they need to teach themselves an entire course on their own. So making friends is very easy here due to the fact that students aren’t nearly as stressed as they could be. Rutgers—Camden is a tight knit community because of this.
Overall, these few questions can help you get a feel for what you want in a college and what a college has to offer. I wish I had known what to ask, but thankfully, I was able to choose an amazing college regardless. Good luck!
Written by LeAnne H., a Rutgers—Camden Undergraduate Student and Raptor Ambassador.