<p>An indie college counselor discusses why kids choose certain colleges:</p>
<p>“They might have vacation on the brain and focus on beautiful, balmy locations. Or theyll focus on schools that get high ratings for ‘Hot Guys’ or ‘Hot Girls’ … Also, nobody wants to be the token Black, Latino, American Indian or member of any other minority in their dorm, sorority or freshman biology class.” …</p>
<p>I agree with the “nobody wants to be the only one.”
I think, for the serious student, the “hot guy” “hot girl” thinking is not a large part of the equation. However, the quality of their lives at college is. Even if the college promotes non-discriminatory admissions, no administrator can control the day to day lives of the students. Nobody wants to face exclusion among peers, feel different, or be the “only” one of anything on a campus. It’s a lonely and unhappy choice.</p>
<p>There’s no way for a college to even the playing field for any group of students. There will always be cliques, different socioeconomic groups, and so on, but if there’s enough of “each” and support systems in place for success, then any student will find a peer group.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is also why the mere suggestion of an otherwise good-fit college that happens to be an HBCU to a non-black student sometimes is not received well on these forums.</p>
<p>That may also be behind the desire of some people to limit the Asian enrollment in colleges, as they may not be comfortable being a member of a minority group after having lived most of their lives as a member of the majority group.</p>
<p>If someone is limiting enrollment, that person would be an adult, and not part of a student’s peer group. I would think that kind of reason (if that were the case) would be different than an 18 year old wanting to fit in. </p>
<p>Whether or not it’s desirable, high school kids tend to be in cliques or social groups. They will eventually branch out in college but may not yet have a strong or fully mature sense of identity yet. The article is suggesting psychological reasons, and those can be many. Going to college is enough of a transition without additional psychological stress of being the “only one” if the student doesn’t want to be.</p>
<p>An 18 year old picking a college has a different maturity, perspective, and motivation than an adult. Wanting to be in the majority is also different than not wanting to be the only one. The “only one” may still be in the minority, but just wants some more peers like them.</p>
<p>The “only one” threshold may be different for different people.</p>
<p>For example, someone who grew up with 80% of others of the same group may feel like s/he is the “only one” in a college with 20% of the students of the same group. But someone who grew up with 5% of the others of the same group may find that 20% looks like a big increase.</p>
<p>I agree, and that applies to us. We’re Jewish in an area where we are the “only ones”. Even 5% at a college is huge to us.</p>
<p>The “only one” threshold is different, because every student will have a different perspective, but I think how the student feels on a campus is an important part of “fit”. It’s one factor in many including location, cost, academics.</p>
<p>We’re talking about an age group where some of them don’t even want to be seen at a party wearing a different outfit than their peers. Others have developed a broad peer group. Fortunately there’s a large choice of schools out there.</p>