When junior math major Katie Clark moved to DeKalb two years ago, college was not the only thing she had to get used to.

Clark, who grew up in Algoma, Wisc. – a small town located 30 miles east of Green Bay – made the adjustment from a town of only 3,400 people to DeKalb, where the population has reached nearly 39,000.

More than 3,000 freshmen enroll at NIU each year. Making the adjustment from high school to college is hard enough for most students, but for Clark and numerous others raised in small towns, the adjustment to the big city is a huge change as well.

“Coming here is a whole new world. I think everyone in my entire high school could fit into one tower of Grant,” Clark said. “NIU’s campus could probably cover all of Algoma, or at least a good portion of it.”

Though many students from bigger areas see DeKalb as a small farm community, Clark disagrees.

“It’s amazing because I hear so many people complain about DeKalb because it’s ‘so small and boring.’ I’d like to see them spend a week or two in Algoma. They’d be dying just to get back to DeKalb,” Clark said.

Growing up in a small town and moving to a bigger city is one of many things students must get used to when coming to college. The social environment and the different surroundings are something many small-town students find to be a big change.

“In my town, everyone knows everyone else and all of their business,” said freshman communication major Michelle Matsche. “Where I’m from, when you go ‘into town’ you know everyone that you see, where they live, how old they are and all of their siblings’ names and ages. In DeKalb, I’m constantly meeting new people.”

Matsche, who grew up in a small town outside St. Louis, said the biggest change about moving from a small town to a bigger city such as DeKalb is having a Wal-Mart so close.

“Having Wal-Mart only 10 minutes away is amazing! If you need something, you can just run to Wal-Mart and be back right away,” Matsche said. “It takes at least 30 minutes to get to the nearest Wal-Mart near my hometown, so you have to schedule a whole afternoon just to run to the store.”

With DeKalb being close to cities such as Aurora, Rockford and Chicago, some students feel as though they live in a large city.

“My first reaction was that the town was just bigger and with bigger towns comes more people,” said freshman meteorology major Zach Rahe, who grew up in Hillsboro, Ill.

For some small-town students, the change from their hometown to the bigger city is something to be excited about. For others, the small-town feel is something that will be missed.

“Everyday after school, the kids with cars or trucks always go up and drive the main strip. The distance is about two blocks,” Rahe said. “We always had a ‘take your tractor to school’ day during homecoming at my high school. Those are the things that I’m going to miss the most.”

Clark agreed getting used to everything moving at a faster pace is sometimes difficult.

“It’s a definite change. Life back home just seemed so much more relaxed and laid back,” Clark said. “There is, however, the perk of not having the small-town gossip where everyone knows everyone and their business. I like not having that.”

Whether from a big town or a small one, students are finding there is a world outside of what they had known for so long.

“I wanted to go to a bigger city to see what else the world has to offer outside of itty-bitty Algoma,” Clark said. “There’s so much of a difference just in DeKalb.”