Griffen Horsley – Small Town University

What are the advantages or disadvantages of going to a small local university?

One of the disadvantages is of course our campus is quite small, so it isn’t necessarily the Orthodox sort of university experience. You go off to what is effectively a small city inside of a city, so you don’t get that experience. We’re not right in the downtown of Orillia so for a long time up until recently there hasn’t really been much around the campus. That’s starting to fill in now but I would say the disadvantages are primarily just the fact it’s a small satellite campus.

Certainly the biggest advantage is the fact that you’re working so closely with your professors, with actual professionals in the fields that you’re looking into. Most of my courses that I’ve taken since second year have been incredibly small classes.

Last semester I had a class of three people and I always tell people this and they’re always like “oh, that must be a lot of pressure”, and it is, but it’s a great form of pressure. You have to talk with these incredibly intelligent people and you’re really getting this hands-on, mentor-like connection with these incredibly nice and smart people.