You have probably heard it over and over again: choosing a college is one of the most important decisions you will make in your life. And it's true. Where you attend college will have a lasting impact on your personal and professional life.
But the truth is, many students select a college based on emotion or a very limited set of criteria-sometimes just a gut feeling. While this won't preclude you from academic success, such an important decision should probably undergo a higher level of scrutiny.
Below are some important factors to consider when choosing a college. These factors start general and get more specific. As you narrow down your list of schools, you're going to want to ask more detailed questions and dig deeper to find out if that school will be a good fit for you.
This is a simple question, but the answer rarely is. Most high school students don't know what they want to do when they grow up. But remember, you're choosing a college, not a major. Selecting the best college is just as much a process of learning about yourself as it is about prospective schools.
You may not know what career you want to pursue after graduation, but you certainly know what your interests are and what you're good at. Thinking about this will help you figure out if you're leaning towards liberal arts or a technical field.
Self-reflection will also help you get a grasp on other factors. Do you want to attend a large or small school? Far away or close to home? Expensive or affordable? As you ask yourself these questions, you will begin to have a better understanding of your own priorities.
It may even be possible that you're not quite ready for college yet. You may want to take a year off, but make sure that you spend it wisely. Other countries have a tradition of students taking a year after high school to travel, work or volunteer. This is not a tradition in the United States, so you want to make sure you do something productive with your time. When you finally do apply for colleges, they will want to know what you did with your free time during the prime of your life.
Before you spend any time investigating a college, first make sure it is accredited. This means that an officially licensed organization has vetted the school and reviewed its curriculum to verify that it meets basic academic standards for higher education.
Most schools will readily provide this information on their website-usually on the About or Admissions pages. If you're having trouble finding it, just call or email the admissions department.
A college or university can be nationally or regionally accredited. Within a college, specific schools, departments or programs can also have their own accreditation. This ensures that your degree will be recognized by employers and other institutions of higher education.
The real question is, what type of education do you want? Most students would respond that they don't know yet. But you don't have to choose a major or decide on a career…not just yet.
Take a step back and ask yourself some basic questions: Where do your interests and abilities lie? Are you better suited for liberal arts subjects or more technical fields, such as math, science and engineering? By the time you're a junior or senior in high school, you probably have an idea.
Most colleges and universities lean in one direction or another. A small liberal arts college will not have much to offer a student that wants to be an engineer. She will want to apply to larger research universities that have the resources for engineering, as well as other technical and scientific fields.
Think of the type of school as your broadest level of criteria. It is very general and is geared to narrow down your list. Once you apply it with other factors, described below, your options will become clearer.
Most students have an idea as to whether they would like to stay close to home or not. Do you want to live in a big city or somewhere a little quieter? Does a party campus sound like a fun part of the college experience or just a distraction? What about weather and regional culture?
Perhaps most importantly, can you afford to go out-of-state, especially to a more expensive big city? We'll discuss cost in more detail below, but choosing to attend college outside of your home state will automatically make everything more expensive.
Geographic location can have a big impact on your overall college experience. Even if you like the school, if you hate where it's located the next four years could be tough. If you're looking at schools in a particular city, make sure you actually like it there. If you haven't visited in a while, you should probably schedule a trip.
Also consider crime and safety, not just for the city but the campus itself. Almost every major school will provide crime statistics for campus, and many will include surrounding areas. You might think of college as a safe and fun place, and it is. But crime happens, and crime rates vary widely from school to school.
There are thousands of quality schools out there and they come in practically all sizes. A school's size can tell you a lot about it. And much like type of school and geographic location, you probably have some sort of idea about the size of school you'd like to attend.
Large colleges usually have more resources. This can include campus facilities such as student housing, libraries, computer access, health centers, athletic facilities, culture and entertainment. Large research universities also tend to have large budgets to invest in faculty, classroom technology and research and development labs for science, engineering and other fields of study.
Perhaps most importantly, large institutions usually provide more academic options, including hundreds of different majors and concentrations. This can be especially attractive if you haven't settled on a major or are looking to pursue an interdisciplinary major.
Small colleges have plenty to offer that larger institutions cannot. Many colleges stay small so they can specialize in liberal arts education or even a certain discipline within liberal arts. The campus and the class sizes will be smaller, and the overall college experience is usually much more intimate.
Remember, a small and cozy school can still be located in a big, bustling city. And a big public university can be located in a small town (these are often the party schools). It's important to judge the size of the school in the context of the surrounding environment.
Other factors may be more important to you personally, but in the end, cost may trump them all. There are so many education options out there, and they all require a substantial financial investment. But some will put you into debt for years, while others will take decades to pay for.
Private schools are usually more expensive than public colleges and state universities. However, private schools tend to have larger endowments and offer more grants and scholarships. This can even out the cost of tuition to some degree.
Tuition is only about half of the overall cost of attending college. Housing, food, transportation, books and other cost-of-living expenses contribute to a much higher “sticker price.” If you're looking at schools in expensive cities like New York or Los Angeles, you're likely to be paying 2 or 3 times more in rent.
Remember Geographic Location? Hopefully you have given some thought not only to where you would like to go, but where you can afford to go. Attending college out-of-state is automatically more expensive. The tuition will be subject to non-resident fees, but you will also probably spend more on cost of living.
If money is more of an obstacle, you may want to consider living at home and studying your general requirements at a community college. It has become very common, not just for affordability. Across the board, community colleges have improved academic standards and made it easier to transfer credits to four-year universities. Many studies even show community college students going on to greater academic success than their university counterparts.
