Many colleges really sell themselves to prospective students to encourage them to apply. Private colleges focus on their “small class sizes”, “personality”, and “tradition”. Public colleges, on the other hand, say that they have a lot of school-spirit, cost a lot less money, and have more events on-campus. Well, I am a little unique in the fact that I have attended both a private and public college for exactly one semester, and have the positives and negatives for each. I know that there are people who don’t fit in at public-colleges, but there are also people who don’t like the private-college atmosphere.

I attended Knox College in Fall 2015. Personally, attending Knox wasn’t the right choice for my college due to cost, mostly, as well as stress-levels for being part of a freshman class that was 75% pre-med. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be pre-med, but I was forced to fight for my life among a few hundred other future-doctors! However, I have to say, the friends I made in those few weeks during first term are still very near and dear to my heart. Everyone I met at Knox was interesting in their own way, and I knew almost everyone on campus by name. The science equipment was exquisite; you don’t have to be a grad student to gain access to top-of-the-line machines. And the food. The food was the best I have ever had. In fact, I probably posted my food on my snapchat story at least twice a day while I attended Knox.

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I decided to transfer to University of Wisconsin-La Crosse for Spring 2016. It was almost shocking how different the two colleges were. For example, I wasn’t worried about being dragged to the poor-house after paying my tuition! I was also happy to be attending a college that was only 3 hours from home; this was far enough away to learn how to be independent, but close enough to catch a ride home for the holidays. Being at a public college also presents many different opportunities that I would have never gotten at Knox. For example, I got the opportunity to volunteer at a large hospital about a 20 minute bus ride away! I also could get a job doing what I did in high school-work at Subway! I had a lot of time to build my resume and work, because I wasn’t studying each night until 3am. However, it was a lot harder to find friends here. I am a more creative person, and many people didn’t relate to this. I felt lost in a sea of black, knee-length coats, leggings, and uggs. However, I eventually made some great friends who I believe will be in my life forever. UW-La Crosse also wasn’t as exciting as Knox. This might be because it doesn’t have a lot of diversity, and many of the events on campus weren’t social events. However, I had a lot of fun at the events that I did attend, and found La Crosse to be a much better fit.

Whichever college you end up attending, remember that if it wasn’t the right choice, transferring isn’t as stressful as you would think! Keeping a positive attitude and choosing the college that will best prepare you for your future career will truly be worth it!