<p>A variety of factors influence a student’s choice of colleges. Which of the following have the greatest influence on where a student will submit an application for admission?<br>
Rank-order your choices, with “1” being the greatest influence and “5” being the least influential.</p>
<p>(NOTE: We could add several others factors to the list, but for purposes of simplicity, let’s focus only on these five):</p>
<p>Friends
Parents
Guidance Counselors
Rankings
Media (TV, Computer, etc.)</p>
<p>You should definetly remove guidance counselors and probably parents.</p>
<p>Where is location and more importantly, social life? I dont think you realize how many people apply to schools because of the social life. So in order I would probably say:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Location - If a student hates where the school is at they aren’t going to apply on their own free will.</p></li>
<li><p>Social life - Unless you are introverted and shy and just looking to make it by in college unnoticed, this plays a HUGE role for many students. Alot of schools that rank higher than my first choice school (University of Miami), have started offering me scholarship opportunities my junior year, but they usually don’t even get a second look from me unless they are in a location that would make me want to be there.</p></li>
<li><p>Media - People don’t realize how much the media really influences your decisions. There are stereotypes in your mind that you don’t even realize.</p></li>
<li><p>Friends - most students that plan to go to state Us or stay in state look at where their friends are going.</p></li>
<li><p>Rankings - This isn’t the most important thing for most people.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>NOW for college confidential kids its probably something like:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Ranking/education offered - Prestige is everything to people up here, and everyone wants to go to one of the top 30 schools because the rest are OBVIOUSLY trash /sarcasm.</p></li>
<li><p>Social life - Even CC kids have their own niche in college :p.</p></li>
<li><p>Media</p></li>
<li><p>Parents.</p></li>
<li><p>GCs.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Most CC kids up here are going to elite schools or ivies or something of the sort, so where most of their friends are going doesn’t really matter anyway. My 2 cent</p>
<p>none of the above. my priorities were: location, size of campus, cost, and available opportunities to be active in my own interests.
couldnt care less what my friends thought and never agreed with rankings.</p>
<p>hyakku and huskem: Your points are well taken and make a lot of sense. However, for purposes of this poll, I was interested in “outside influences” as opposed to characteristics of the college itself.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I agree with hyakku entirely. To answer old but wise, in my opinion:</p>
<p><em>A normal person</em>
Media</p>
<p>Friends
Parents</p>
<p>GC</p>
<p>Ranking</p>
<p><em>CC student</em>
Ranking</p>
<p>Media</p>
<p>Parents</p>
<p>Friends
GC</p>
<p>Clen: How do you distinguish between “normal” and “CC?”</p>
<p>A normal person is someone who doesn’t spend time on a website about colleges. Most people are just like “oh, i’ve heard of X U. They have a good football team so I’ll apply.” Or “My girlfriend goes to Tufts, so I wanna go to Northeastern.” The average American has never heard of USnews rankings.</p>
<p>A CC student is obsessed about the most prestige schools and will attend the one that is “the best” that accepts them, not the one that their friends and family tell them to go to.</p>
<p>Thanks. Now I get it.</p>
<p>1- Rankings
2- Parents
3- Friends
4- Media
5- Guidance Councilors (our schools guidance coucilors are notorious for putting together lists of schools that the students don’t apply to. my best friend last year applied to 12 colleges. Not one was on the list her guidance councilor made. In fact, they don’t actually guide us, we can’t meet with them until we are juniors.)</p>
<p>I chose the colleges by reputation and tradition. Also by size, location, social life, and sports. </p>
<p>Rankings-don’t know why, but almost every student takes this in consideration.</p>
<p>Media (TV, Computer, etc.)-espn!!! and when you put the history channel and they say graduate of harvard or columbia, it makes you want to go there</p>
<p>Guidance Counselor-he really has a good knowledge of colleges, and me and my friends chill in his lounge, like everyday</p>
<p>Parents-They paying the bill, so I have to pay attention to them </p>
<p>Friends-I have great friends, but if I have a chance to go to a better school than them, I can always make new friends and keep in touch with my old</p>