The "college experience" will never be found at a state or community school. Our society is constantly presented the stereotypes of what college should look like. Parents tell their children about how amazing graduating high school and going away to university was for them. The entertainment industry certainly never misses a chance to release a new movie every year that portraits the dream of millions of graduates. Meanwhile, the kids that spent their time in high school poorly, or the ones whose parents just cannot afford university prices, get stuck at community college. While both claim to provide a suitable "college experience," which of the two actually deliver? .
Campus size is the first thing that comes to mind when daydreaming of a perfect school. Most people envision historic buildings, fountains, large quads with vibrant green grass, and miles of paved walkway to knit all the infrastructure together. These are typical characteristics of a state university; as opposed to a community college which includes some of those traits but set on a smaller scale. Depending on the campus, state schools are regarded as a dumbed-down college in the public eye. .
With a bigger campus, there is room for more students. While most community colleges have an average student population of three-thousand, a typical university has twenty-thousand-meaning there is more of a social life to be had. Thousands of individuals swarming around like bees; looking for connections like pollen in the flowers of never before seen faces. Most people from community college have started at unsynchronized times. As a result, there is no sense of a graduating class and general courses contain a wide variety of age groups. This takes all the illusion out of what a community college is trying to do to present the stereotypical college lifestyle. High school is more like community college than an actual university.