ashernm

"First of all, there is no ONE factor that's the most important"
Gosh, might the OP be asking about your opinion?!?


sarcasm.

alisonk123

Good vibes. Feeling at home and meshing into the campus is very important, having somewhere homey and comfortable to study and work is my type of place, hence I'm a UCSC hopeful. Oh yeah, and academics too. =P

bullwinkle

IMO the most important factors you want to look at are (in no particular order):
the size of the school. This is very important as it impacts on class size, class availability, etc. It also impacts on how things function-will you get attention to your needs, problems, etc. do you want the chance to be anonymous if you choose or do you want the intimacy of a small group. The size of the school is a tremendous factor.

What are your social views and concerns. Do you want a school with a high PC quotient. Do you want an active greek system. Are you looking for a big party scene or a little more social conscience and activism. every school has its niches, but they also have overriding general atmospheres that will effect you. A part of this is also to look at the % of people living on campus or is it a big commuter school. what is off campus housing like and that social scene.

Another important factor IMO is the school's location-location as far as distance from home, from friends and also as to weather and proximity to other considerations-do you like the mountains, beaches or could you care less. Big city, country isolation, etc. will definitely effect your college experience.

Obviously the academic rep/quality and the availability of your major is a foremost concern. I think you want to be careful though not to confuse name recognition with quality. Many schools are known because they have "big time" football programs, but if you're not on the team, what's that to you?
Also, prestige, rep etc. are truly in the eye of the beholder, so be careful with that factor. For anyone that loves Stanford, there is someone that prefers Cal. For every fan of any given Ivy, there is someone who will pick Amherst, Williams, Pomona or Swarthmore instead. Don't get hung up on "brand names" they are IMO a minor factor at best.

Also, consider the difference between universities and (liberal arts) colleges. while LAC give you a more general education and many students want a more specific program/degree, don't forget that with LAC there are no grad students and so no pool of TAs and with no pool of grad students, if a prof needs a research aid, etc. they gotta go to you. The LAC is typically about the undergrad, only, so that is an advantage. Of course, many LAC don't have the resources of a university in general, but many do, which brings me to $$$$$$$$.

$$$$$$$$$- does the school have it. This impacts on your ability to get aid, but also impacts on how the school functions. Do they have necessary resources, are things up to date, do things get fixed when they break. Are they keeping up their physical infrastructure, building new classrooms, hiring new profs. etc. Schools w/o the dough end up stagnant, programs are impacted, cut off and cut short.

Bottomline, it is YOUR college experience. Not mom's, not dad's, not your uncle who went to state U and will buy you a car if you'll go there. Set your goals and priorites and you will find a match. In a way, gotta be selfish I guess, this choice is about YOU.

thecmpguru

But if I didn't feel like I fit in at Harvard and wanted something different? Wouldn't that be grounds for choosing a state school?

martel_pride

Rice over anybody else because I thought I felt at home here more than at the other schools I applied to, Duke, JHU, and UVa in particular.

martel_pride

and i'm BIOE (BME) so that makes me crazy to yall.

Cre8tive1

It's pretty easy to choose a LAC over Harvard are UC Berkeley, both of which can be terrible for undergrad, mainly Harvard. You wont believe how college counselors I know that will try to keep students from applying to Harvard.

bullwinkle

Gotta agree with Cre8tive1. Prestige of a school doesn't mean much if you are hating your experience there. I really think the prestige of a school is a very superficial, fleeting and relatively minor concern. It's also such a subjective thing, "beauty in the eye of the beholder" and all that. I do speak from experience of having chosen a college based far too much on its image, rep etc. Waaaaaaaaay more important things to look at IMO.

bullwinkle

Just wanted to add to my previous post that while your college choice is most certainly important and there are so many factors to consider, to what ever extent the prestige factor and related considerations may be important, save that concern for grad school. Unless you see undergrad as the end of the road for you, your grad school is going to dictate how you then fare in the job market, etc. At that point, where you went undergrad usually only comes up in discussions of football rivalries, lol.

ClaySoul

patientlywaiting, i would reccomend Tulane. Except the football team is terrible and there's no school spirit. But anyways, best location anywhere and very active Greek life. Ick. But if you like it...

Answer628

whoa..1 vote for legacy..that's remarkable

mpmich_23

For me...academic area, relatively close to home, College football and basketball. It's what I wanted...my brother went to MIT, I went to Purdue...I would choose Purdue every day of the week, because to me, it was the best Engineering School in the Midwest (I would put UIUC/UofM/Purdue as basically the same) and the sports were awesome. Also, Purdue basically is West lafayette, another thing I was looking for, where the college was the town.

It got me into Berkeley for grad school no problem, which also fit my athletics requirement...maybe i'll be a traitor and goto Stanford for an MBA, as they too have the athletics.

let me tell ya, it's cool and all to have great alumni and recognition, although the first man on the Moon was a Purdue grad and Berkeley has it's share of Nobels, but, it's not as fun reading about them as it is watching your alma mater on a Saturday afternoon. 65000 screaming fans, 20000 students rushing the field as you are heading to the Rose Bowl were some of the most memorable things in college.

scholarships

This is a really great poll. The variety of answers is pretty amazing. Just goes to show each person has their own set of criteria.

A couple of cool sites for selecting colleges:
http://www.lunch-money.com/Guides/Co...ollSelect.aspx - This has articles by a bunch of schools and a College Scorecard tool that lets you rate schools yourself. I think they just added a College Organizer for student members which lets you keep track of the application process yourself (and write some notes for yourself).

http://www.review.com - This site has a cool ReviewMap tool that finds schools similar to the ones you may be looking for. The one drawback is I think you HAVE to register to use it.

Hope these resources help.

As far as the state vs private school debate, I don't know if there's a right answer. I grew up in Indiana. It would have been hard to justify going out of state to do engineering with one of the top engineering schools right in my home state (Purdue). I went out of state. There is something to be said for seeing a new place and pushing your comfort zone. I found it exciting embarking on my college experience in a completely new place. To each his own, again, as this poll shows.

Good luck to everyone.

SHABIN

Why isn't climate an important factor in the choice of University/College?
Remember Cecil Rhodes had to leave Oxford because the climate there affected his health badly and he went to Africa!

lemonteacake

what the.... ? Come on now. Who said climate?