Jay Taylor was an hour late to his first class at Ohio State a year ago. Finding a parking space was his first problem, and once he'd finally navigated dozens of lots to find the one that corresponded with his parking permit, he found the building the class was supposed to be in was more difficult to find than he had anticipated.

Taylor, a 26 year-old Ohio State graduate student studying social work, attended Wilmington College (with an enrollment of roughly 1,450, according to its website) for undergrad, and became used to a much smaller scale.

“If I had a 10 a.m. class (at Wilmington,) I could literally roll out of bed at 9:50 and make it to class with time to spare,” he said.

And for commuters, parking spaces could be found in just minutes, Taylor said.

The number of buildings at his undergraduate college could be counted on two hands, but years later, Taylor found himself on a campus the size of a small city.

His experience, while rare, isn't unique at Ohio State. Many students transfer from Ohio State branch campuses, most of which have student bodies of just a few thousand.

The most intimidating part of a larger campus, said Matt Rowen, a 22-year-old senior who transferred to the main campus from Ohio State's Mansfield branch, was finding the right buildings.

“At Mansfield, we had five or six buildings, and one was under construction,” he said. “So it wasn't much of a campus.”

In Columbus, five or six buildings is barely enough to be considered a section of the university. But Rowen said finding the right buildings was the most difficult task. Once he settled into a routine, he said, the larger campus became much easier to navigate.

The brightly colored and overly enthusiastic recruitment pamphlets for small colleges are littered with complaints about large universities: professors aren't accessible, classes are too big, it's harder to get one-on-one instruction, it's more difficult to become involved.

After a quarter at Ohio State, I found none of these issues were as much of a problem as I was led to believe.

Ohio State is roughly seven times the size of the town in which I attended high school (West Milton) and much, much larger than where I attended undergrad (Blufton). I wasn't sure if I could handle the size. But after I spent more time on campus, it seemed like the layout became easier to remember, buildings became easier to find and I gradually settled into the same kind of routine I developed while taking classes at a smaller school.

I had worried that I wouldn't have the same extra-curricular opportunities that I had at Bluffton, but I found activities were available to me at Ohio State. I might not be good enough to make the varsity cross country team, but OSU still has a running club.

Taylor said he found it's easier to get involved at a school the size of Ohio State. The only problem, he said, is that it's harder to find a particular group to become involved with, because there are so many.

Ohio State's website boasts that the university has thousands of student organizations, and they range from the common and relatively popular, (wrestling and running clubs) to the quirky and obscure (Scrabble and Quidditch). It doesn't matter what you're into, you can probably find people at OSU who are into the same thing.

And what about class sizes being too big? While my classes are certainly larger than they were at Bluffton, I don't feel like any of my professors are out of reach. A few clicks of the mouse got me an appointment with my survey class professor, and I've visited the office hours of my other professors, and found them approachable and helpful in each situation.

I've had one lecture with more than 100 students (Stats 145, for anyone who is interested), but it had a separate recitation section with about 20 students where it's easier to get individual instruction.

And then, of course, there are the connections you can make because of the university you attend. For most of the 20th century, Ohio State has been one of the largest universities in the United States, and as a result, has one of the largest alumni networks. And Columbus, a city of more than 700,000, with a metropolitan area of 1.5 million, has hundreds of potential employers looking for recent graduates of one of the nation's highest ranked public universities.

Bluffton also didn't have Futurelink, a tool available for students to use to find internships while still attending college, and permanent jobs after they graduate. As a former job hunter, I can say the more resources you have access to the better, and it especially helps if the employers are specifically looking for students and alumni from your school.

“The possibilities for networking are endless,” Taylor agreed.

Ohio State gave me the chance to see Dan Savage speak, and he's just one of hundreds of interesting people who have appeared at Ohio State through the years to talk to students about interesting topics. Colleges as small as Bluffton and Wilmington rarely have visits from such famous speakers.

Don't misunderstand me, a smaller school might be right for a certain kind of person.

At the time he attended undergrad, Taylor said a smaller school made more sense.

“It was something I could wrap my head around,” he said. “I come from a pretty small area (Tiffin), and I hadn't been exposed to much outside of that.”