What is the most impt factor in selecting a college? - Page 14

vossron · 02-17-2007, 01:43 PM

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Prestige, overall academic ranking or reputation.

This is awful, combining academic quality with prestige and reputation into one checkbox. That's like combining location and tuition; there might be some minimal correlation, but nothing meaningful.

My vote is for schools which best prepare students for their goals. This leaves a lot of work for students to figure out what their goals (short or long term) are, and then to find the matching schools, but students should be pushed to put some serious thought into it, IMHO.

betterday55 · 02-17-2007, 02:39 PM

I was watching the O.C latetly and it's just funny to see how people throw out "Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown" like they're easy to get into. Seriously, Taylor was like, "well, wherever the wind blows, Harvard, princeton, Yale, whatever." And Ryan going to Berkeley...come on! Nowt hat just tells you the media affects our minds!! The media makes us think that going to an ivy is the road to success and money.

betterday55 · 02-17-2007, 02:40 PM

I'm not done yet, i think the lowest ranking school that's ever been mentioned in a movie that is related to an academic smarty pants person is Carnegie Mellon, and even that's a well known school.

sakky · 02-17-2007, 03:13 PM

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By the way, a good reason to choose a state school over Stanford or another LAC--if you want to go into teaching, the state schools usually have higher-ranked education programs that lead directly into the credential and masters of education. (I'm biased--I'm a teacher.)

According to USNews, Stanford has the #4 rated Graduate Education school in the country. The only state school that beats it is UCLA. And neither UCLA nor Stanford have a program that lead an undergraduate directly into the credential and M.Ed. In both cases, you have to apply to the program after graduating with your bachelor's.

Hence, I don't see the lack of such an education program as a good reason to choose a state school over Stanford.

ClaySoul · 02-17-2007, 03:14 PM

Quality of rugby program...lol

sakky · 02-17-2007, 03:17 PM

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People are totally stuck on this prestige/appearance factor, but let me tell you it shouldn't be the most important thing in your list...I mean, most people want to go somewhere with a good reputation, but prestige is kind of an opinion/by region thing. For example, my college isn't very 'prestigious' by popular culture, but it is well-known in my region and in the top 100 colleges. Also, prestige isn't always the most important way to get good job connections/opportunities like people think. Really, a lot of people have told me I wouldn't be able to get a job out of my college, but we get important recruiters here ALL THE TIME who practically beg for our students -- not just from top national corporations (Pfizer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lockheed-Martin, the government -- we even have an ambassador in residence -- and we usually have 2 or 3 Fulbright scholars every year) but grad/law/med schools (Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vanderbilt, and some other top glm schools are here quite often for recruitment fairs.)

Uh, maybe I'm missing something, but isn't it rather counterproductive to, on the one hand, say that prestige doesn't matter, but then on the other hand, cite a bunch of prestigious graduate schools, prestigious scholarships, and prestigious employers that your school's alumni are able to get? It seems to me that either prestige matters, or it doesn't. If prestige doesn't matter, then who cares what kind of prestigious things a school's alumni happen to do afterwards?

Perhaps what you mean to say is that undergraduate prestige doesn't matter. But then that begs the question of why is undergrad so different?

vossron · 02-17-2007, 05:02 PM

One can make a list of quality institutions, and some or all might also have prestige, but not necessarily, and vice versa. It's common for the prestige of graduate schools to rub off onto the co-located undergrad programs, in some people's minds.

Unkown726 · 03-17-2007, 03:40 AM

You guys think UCLA is a pretty good school in regards to the aspect of its student fitness, major strength (chemistry?) and prestige??

ekn111 · 03-20-2007, 12:48 PM

^Yes, I think so.

ktcv · 03-20-2007, 06:20 PM

after all the hard work in high school all i want is the prestige of going to a BIG university. theres no better reward than that....after all that studying we deserve that much, right?

i just wanna walk around with my berkeley sweatshirt and when people ask get to say "heck yes i'm going there!!!!!"

lostincode · 03-20-2007, 08:01 PM

cal = safety school

shubhsinghi6700 · 04-06-2007, 12:34 PM

In all respect, I really do disagree with the whole "Prestige" thing.

Yes..Prestige is a factor,but after a few college visits, I found myself completely disregarding all these Ivies and what not.

For example...I visited Duke and UNC-CH ..which is the better, more presitgious college? Duke. Which is one I'd hands down pick, UNC.

Yes, Duke is beautiful. Its basically an Ivy-League. But, UNC won me over on so many other grounds. I felt at home at UNC. The campus was nothing spectacular, but it was lively. The people at UNC seemed to care more about me..the information session was about everything....Duke was simply a 30 minute tour of the campus..I found out nothing new about the school. Not to mention, Duke didn't even have a solid business major..it was an all out liberal arts school, not what i was looking for.

In short, Prestige is not the only biggie. I think a good solid college with one that suits your personality and is compatible with your passions is the best.

Harvard, Yale, Cornell, with all due respect, mean little to me now.

Camilo Forero · 04-10-2007, 09:37 AM

Definaltey the most imporatant factor to choose your college is wether you are goign to feel comfortable with the people and teachers you are surrounded by. If these are good enough then just chboose the best college you can enter in terms of your career.

aazout · 04-10-2007, 09:43 AM

Everything matters, academic, Good vibes, ranking or reputation.

David Gonzalez · 04-10-2007, 01:19 PM

I think that both prestige and the academic on ythe carrer are the most important factors, if you want to be succesfull a prestigious university is going to help a lot because in a job interview as soon as they see the university you come from they would have a good idea where theire company is going to be headed to you are goint to be second over a harvard student.