I’ve had the pleasure of attending Trent for the past three years, and I will soon have the pleasure of hanging my honours degree from Trent on my wall as I graduate this month. I am super proud to have gone to such an amazing school. It has always grinded my gears to hear people disregard Trent as a lower-scale school with that age-old saying “Try a Real Education Next Time” all of us from Trent just hate to hear.
If you are not super proud to be a Trent student, here’s why you should be. Trent is beautiful! Not too many other universities have a river running right through their campus. We are not a concrete jungle crammed into a downtown core. We can hike the drumlin, see wildlife running across campus, and there are plenty of great spots outdoors to take in the beauty between classes.
We are a smaller school. I cannot count the amount of times when I was a first year getting lost on campus during my first couple weeks when I thought, boy am I ever glad I did not pick a bigger school or I would really be lost right now! Being a part of the Trent community is really something special. With Trent’s smaller size, clubs and groups on campus are really open and welcoming – I was in quite a few, and my university experience would have been really dry and boring had I not joined anything ever!
What is especially unique about Trent’s smaller size, that you would not get at a larger university in, say, Toronto, is how personalized your education can become. We are lucky that there are many opportunities to get to know our professors, and that we are not just another student number.
In my last year at Trent, I loved how small the fourth year classes in my major were — the smallest class I took was about six people. It was great to have the opportunity to get to know the professor on that level. Our small class sizes give us a great advantage in the world when we are done our degrees at Trent; they give us plenty more opportunity to learn, provide us with the unique ability to connect with our peers and mentors, and the skills that we gain from this close learning experience translate into real world assets that set us apart from the rest.
I went to a talk last year given by a Trent alumnus, entitled “What can you do with a Trent Liberal Arts Degree?”
The answer was “anything.” That will stick with me forever.
So, whether you are new to Trent, or returning, and whatever your program, be proud that you go to such an amazing university. Get out there, enjoy the beautiful campus, join some clubs, and get to know your professors – make use of the time you have here at Trent. Never let anyone tell you to “Try a Real Education Next Time!”