AQ: Small school, big city

Introduction
Aquinas is a very small school, my freshman class had about 400 in it... and that was the biggest in the college's history. I honestly went to Aquinas because of the campus, it is incredibly beautiful- acres of trees right on the outskirts of Grand Rapids. Aquinas offers substantial financial aid to ALL of its students, the admissions staff really pulls you in, and the prospect of class sizes topping off at 30 sounds pretty nice. Students who want a family atmosphere, relationships with professors, and a small school will love Aquinas for all of these reasons. If you want to feel a "college experience" with big parties, huge lectures (some people like those), and an anonymous feel, AQ is not right for you.

Campus Life and Social Life
Social life is what you make it to be. You can't help but know 90% of the people on campus, but it is up to you to join in. There are a fair number of clubs and organizations, and no competition to get into any of them. There is no football team at AQ, they say that soccer is the big sport, but most students don't care too much about the sports scene here. There are parties, like at any college, but the weekends at AQ are pretty dead... most partiers go to other big universities for that. Academics
There are no TA's or GSI's at Aquinas, and a majority of the professors have doctorates in their fields. Professors are extremely available, and some make accomodations for office hours at night. A lot of students are at AQ for pre-med (the grad school/med school acceptance percentage from AQ is pretty high). Education and business are also big. The education department is one of the best in the state. It's a liberal arts school so you have to do a little bit of everything, no matter what. Oh, it's a Catholic college, but by no means is that forced down anyone's throat. But that does mean there are sisters (nuns) that teach some of the classes.

Student Body
As a small school, there isn't a lot of diversity because a lot of students come from the surrounding Grand Rapids area. About 95% of students come from Michigan and the rest from neighboring states. Most students are friendly and outgoing; because the school is so small, it is easy to know almost everyone you see. Also, there isn't a ton of off campus housing, so many students stay on campus for the entirety of their college experience.

In Closing...
Aquinas is in a great city with amazing opportunites for students- internships, jobs, theaters, shopping, and clubs. AQ is not downtown, so it's out of the noise and city-life, but it is near enough to take advantage of the fun and excitement of a big city. Also, Lake Michigan is only half an hour away, which is wonderful in the summer/fall. Just make sure you don't mind Michigan winters, because it gets very cold and snowy...