Kolache Kid

You may not have noticed that undecided is also a choice. Your friends are correct. Many students who fail to complete extensive pre-planning will find themselves changing their selections. Mass General's motto "You can't predict the future but you can prepare" seems appropriate for college bound students.

bigU212

My mom gets mad because one of my top priorities when I look at schools is the type of dorms they have, but thats where I will be spending a lot of my time! It's important to feel comfortable and at home on campus!

aviatrix10

Yeah, I'd choose a good state school over MIT anyday if 1)i couldn't afford it or 2) it just didn't feel right...
Luckily, that didn't happen, but it's gotta have that YES I FEEL LOVED!! feeling.

Em36

the most important factor really depends on the person, but i would say housing and academics are the two most important. also price. . .

LaurenP88

Good vibes!! I'm going from MA to CA so some level of comfort was important. I've been singing Phantom Planet's song (O.C. theme song!) ever since I was accepted hehe.

Californiaaa, here I come!

deciding

I don't know if this has been said yet (I'm sure it has to some extent), but a friend of mine made a very good point the other day:

"you will be most productive and the most successful at the college where YOU FEEL the best. it doesn't matter if it's ranked number 1 or number 51; you have to be happy in order to stick it through and do well."

bigU212

There's isn't just one important factor! You need to do a lot of research. The NY times just had some articles about how many peole transfer! You gotta make sure you like the people, the party scene, the work ethic, the dorms, the surround areas, the professors, all that stuff!

Elissae

Our valedictorian chose Georgia Tech over MIT...I think it was either the location issue (we live in Georgia) or the money issue...not sure.

Strykur

For me it was mostly friends, and also ranking. I never really considered UC Berkeley until last fall, when it hit me: what the hell, why NOT go to the best UC, the highest ranked public university in the world, arguably one of the best universities anywhere? Plus I get into the huge California/Stanford rivalry. GO BEARS!

TourGuide446

You'll notice that college confidential is dominated by people interested in engineering and business, and that these are the folks most fixated on rankings. They are quantitatively oriented, and much more prone to equating value to numbers, rather than to abstract concepts like beauty, fit, and love.

"I love this school because it's beautiful and I fit so well there" is gibberish to them. They want to hear, "Cornell is top 5 in electrical enginnering according to National Enquirer, and 25% of it's business school grads get hired by Wall Street firms, so it must be a great place to go."

dyip10

Actually if you are not on the recruited list of the top investment banks, it is very very very hard to work for them. Each year they have a list of schools they go to for interviews and campus fairs. Even UCLA and UC Berkeley are not that great for investment banking in New York compared to the Ivies. You'll more likely work for the local investment bank office in California (Even obtaining a job at the local office is extremely difficult). If you graduate from UCI (University of California, Irvine) good luck getting a job at an investment bank. You will need to network like crazy for a slim chance.

It really depends on the job though. For instance, how many people want to become investment bankers? Going to Harvard and majoring in economics will not help you against a Cal Poly SLO graduate who majored in accounting if you want to work for a Big Four firm.

art brutta

The most important factor for me would have to be the vibe that I get of the student body as well as the location. The student body can be really chill and warm but if it is located in the middle of nowhere and I am essentially glued to the campus, then this bothers me about the college and turns me away from applying there. I do not have the time to visit all the campuses that I want (mostly ones in the midwest and Pacific northwest as well as a few on the west coast). I intend on applying to as many colleges as my school lets me send apps out to, to maximize my rate of acceptance. Also a lot of the schools I'm applying to are "reach" schools for me, my SAT II scores are not the best and my SAT score could be improved as well. Atleast I have a solid GPA and a few core extracurriculars that I am deeply involved with. To anyone else like myself who cannot make the trek to some campuses and does not have the cash to either, I recommend the dvds that I've bought and suggest going on to their website at www.theU.com to get some for urself.

whoareyou416

I think the vibe was the most important aspect for me. Academics were maybe just as important, or a little less, I looked at schools that have good programs in environmental science, physics, other sciences and creative writing, which I am interested in majoring in, especially envisci and the other sciences.
I got accepted to a bunch of schools and it came down to St. Lawrence, Clark and U. of Vermont because they all had great envisci programs. St. Lawrence didn't seem vibrant enough for me, everyone was low key and nice, but didn't seem to be very enthusiastic about the school or about being there. They seemed to just be going through the motions. I'm sure they love it and there seems to be a lot of school spirit with the Division I Hockey and the SLU v. Clarkson, but it just doesn't seem vibrant enough.
I visited Clark and just "felt" that it was the right place for me. I can't really explain why. The academics and the envisci program seemed to be just what I was looking for, certain classes there, including the core classes and the freshman seminars you can take seem REALLY interesting, and there was a professor there that was doing some of the same research I am interested in doing and teaching a class I am really interested in taking. Not to mention the student body - the fact that everyone was different, or normal looking, not J Crew model-like, everyone was unique, people accepted every type of person, they are very diverse + multicultural(~17-18% non-white, 8% international, but most importantly they are all open to different cultures - they have an international gala event that is jam-packed, standing room only, every year in which international students put on international dances), and they are COOL. DIFFERENT people go to Clark, not the typical people like you see at Fairfield University or Holy Cross, and half of my high school isn't going there - I'm the only one I think in 6 years!

whoareyou416

Well the three schools that it was between had just as good departments for what I wanted to major in, envisci, and just as many opportunities for research/internships and had just as good education. The vibe and what I felt at the school was what made my decision. I think if one of the schools had the obvious best program, I might have gone to that one, but I don't know. In this case, I made my choice not only on academics, but also mostly on personal feel. I don't know which is more important to me. I would not go to a school with an unbelievably worse program in my major than another school, even if it had the best reputation, unless maybe if they gave me much more money and/or the other one was unaffordable, but I would also rather go to a school with a better atmospher than another. So I don't know. Maybe the vibe and your gut feeling is more important. Trust your gut in telling you where to go. Juniors, maybe you can take note of that and use it in making your decision. I think my gut told me Clark and that is where I am going. Let's see how this works...

TourGuide446

Whore, sounds like you made a good and thoughtful choice. I'm familiar with Clark, and it does indeed seem like an interesting and inclusive place. Good luck.