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View Poll Results: What is the most impt factor in selecting a college? | |
Prestige, overall academic ranking or reputation.
|    | 1329 | 41.11% | |
Academic strength in my intended major.
|    | 1706 | 52.77% | |
Geography: close enough to home.
|    | 151 | 4.67% | |
Geography: far away enough from home.
|    | 187 | 5.78% | |
Climate.
|    | 221 | 6.84% | |
Tuition, potential scholarships and cost of living.
|    | 704 | 21.78% | |
Legacy status/family history at the school.
| | 34 | 1.05% | |
Girlfriend/boyfriend, other friends there.
| | 79 | 2.44% | |
Athletics.
| | 97 | 3.00% | |
Good vibes...felt at home.
| | 1172 | 36.25% | |
Location...it's where I want to be!
| | 681 | 21.06% |
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12-25-2004, 09:14 AM
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#1 | | Super Moderator
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: New Orleans
Threads: 111
Posts: 693
| What is the most impt factor in selecting a college?
Take the poll!
(any impt reasons not listed?)
Last edited by PSedrishMD : 12-25-2004 at 09:20 AM.
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12-25-2004, 11:54 AM
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#2 | | | Perfect "fit", "match", ideal atmosphere...around that. | |
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12-25-2004, 12:04 PM
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#3 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New York
Threads: 51
Posts: 553
| If you're talking ONE important factor, honestly, "fit" "location" "atmosphere" all these fancy words that english teachers and parents tell us are important go out the window...it depends on your career...if you're set on a profession like engineering where you really have to know yoru stuff, academic strength in your intended major counts the most...if you're looking for a career where a strong alumni network and recruiting is needed, overall academic ranking is most important.
Good to see that the votes are in the right place... | |
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12-25-2004, 12:14 PM
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#4 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Threads: 12
Posts: 266
| Prestige is the most important. Don't be hypocrits y'all. Why else is it so hard for a person to choose a state school over Stanford, or an LAC over Harvard? | |
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12-25-2004, 12:18 PM
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#5 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New York
Threads: 51
Posts: 553
| Amen ubermensch...and it should never be hard to choose a state school over Stanford! | |
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12-25-2004, 12:33 PM
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#6 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Westchester, New York
Threads: 21
Posts: 311
| prestige yes, strength in academic interests was important to me as was location, but i think the real "most" important criterion is "where will the student be the most sucessful?" What school "felt right". Where will you thrive? That feeling when you walk onto the "right" campus, that i know i had, i think is the most important factor | |
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12-25-2004, 04:47 PM
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#7 | | Member
Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: NY & Amherst, MA
Threads: 17
Posts: 666
| what about factoring in the general location of the school? ie, rural/suburban/urban.
i kind of was interested in cornell, but ithaca is definitely not a happening place, and i much rather prefer city life. | |
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12-25-2004, 05:09 PM
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#9 | | Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Kentucky
Threads: 3
Posts: 45
| Good vibes is very important to me... if i'm going to live somewhere for four years i need to feel comfortable... if i'm not comfortable then i won't as happy, involved, or work up to my potential.... another important factor is the size... because i don't think i could stand it the professors didn't know me by name or if i was just a number | |
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12-25-2004, 05:13 PM
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#10 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: New York
Threads: 51
Posts: 553
| Public schools are not bad, but the top private schools are better in terms of prestige and resources.
The reason why public schools are superior in some other countries is because the NATIONAL government takes an interest and active role in funding and organizing the school. Other countries have standardized tests that selectively determine the smartest students in the nation who have the most potential. Furthermore, other countries like Japan, unlike the US, dont have this notion of No Child Left Behind...theyll leave behind children if theyre not smart enough, leaving them with just the cream of the crop, which they provide with excellent public education to provide for the future of the nation.
In the US, none of this holds true...something else to keep in mind. | |
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12-27-2004, 08:23 PM
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#13 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Rochester, NY
Threads: 16
Posts: 690
| I would definately agree with Ally and West Side...
My teacher told me about the University of Rochester and that it was a pretty good science school and that it had a med school (she and her husband went there, her husband for Med School and she for her masters)... I myself had honestly never heard of it, however I had heard of its neighbor, RIT... I was going to the college and careers event at RIT and I said to myself that I should probably check out UR while I was up there considering what my teacher told me about it. So I did, before we had to check into C&C at RIT I went on my tour there and when I first went into the campus I saw that it was a pretty nice looking campus, but at the end of the tour that transformed into so much more... I knew that it was much more than a pretty looking campus, but a school that I could definately see myself at. I fell in love with it at first sight. Well, a few months later I know that I am the class of 2009 there. Honestly I don't care that UR is not as recognized by the 'common folk' as much as Yale or Harvard or Princeton. | |
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12-30-2004, 12:02 PM
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#14 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Threads: 11
Posts: 609
| I guess the notion of a classical liberal arts education is fading, what with so many people choosing strength in academic area. | |
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12-30-2004, 10:57 PM
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#15 | | Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Threads: 36
Posts: 735
| Bigjake587, you got me thinking on this "NCLB" thing. Maybe you'll post about it some place else. In America, as compared to less diverse societies, every issue in education gets more complicated. NCLB is potentially destructive to a nation's quality of education, but in America you have to deal with issues of unequal opportunity. At some point however, once the opportunity has been made available, some people will have to be left behind or the enitire educational system suffers. I'm sorry for digressing from the theme of this thread, but your post piqued my interest. I'm out. Carry on. | |
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