<p>In making your final choice of a college, then, keep the following in mind:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Which school gives me the best opportunity to achieve my educational goals by virtue of its curriculum, faculty, and facilities?</p></li>
<li><p>In which learning environment will I be able to "do my thing" most comfortably?</p></li>
<li><p>Which college will challenge me to develop my skills to their fullest? </p></li>
<li><p>Where will I find a community of "scholars" that brings out the best in me as a person? </p></li>
<li><p>Which college has demonstrated that it is most likely to invest in my success? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Think for yourself and you can't go wrong. Happy decision making!</p>
<p>Isn't it odd that none of the above talk about finances?</p>
<p>It’s a very nice expression of just the questions to ask, thank you POIH. </p>
<p>Powerbomb and POIH, Number 2 is a very personal question, and indeed the answer isn’t always MIT. But sometimes it is, LOL!</p>
<p>However, I’ve met many people who went to graduate school at MIT who could not have imagined going there as an undergrad. One of the most brilliant individuals I know, who taught MIT undergrads, said that his experience in a state university honors program gave him time to “digest the material” that allowed him to develop the creativity that he needed to get into MIT’s graduate school based on his undergraduate research. He didn’t think that MIT undergrads had enough time to ponder, just time to do more work. He didn’t think he would have fared as well as he did. </p>
<p>It’s very personal; there is no one right way.</p>
<p>Why is Peter Van Buskirk someone I should trust to say how this decision should be made?</p>
<p>Regarding finances, a strong argument could be made that major scholarships and/or financial aid are a pretty strong signal of willingness to “invest in my success”.</p>
<p>Excellent list. A POIH said, I’d add $$$. I’d also add living conditions. Living on campus all 4 years, having one House to live in as freshman on, matter more or less to a 17 y.o.</p>
<p>I agree with POIH’s points in post #1 but want to add…the perspective of EACH student will make the answers to the questions different. For some, the answers will point to their community college…and for others they will point to a competitive four year residential college. There is NO right or wrong here…it’s just different strokes for different folks.</p>
<p>Regarding #2 on the list, before he even lifted a finger to apply anywhere, my math/sci guy said he was NOT interested in a CalTech/MIT type of environment, at least for undergrad. My next task was to try and find a school that was plenty strong in STEM, yet not overly populated with students in those majors, that offered an interdisciplinary approach. Thankfully before I pulled my hair out, I found the Integrated Science Program at Northwestern U, where he’s now a happy freshman.</p>
<p>My own question–what high school senior would have a clue how to answer those questions? 1) How many know their “educational goals” at age 17 or 18? We know that most college students change their majors once or more. 2) How many have figured out what their “thing” is at that age? The college years are the time when students should be learning who they are and what they want in life. 3) How could anyone possibly know which college will challenge a student to develop their skills to the fullest, since every college will claim this attribute? I don’t know of any school that doesn’t say some version of this in its marketing materials and info sessions. Is the high schooler supposed to interview grads to see if they felt adequately challenged? And then there are the applicants who are primarily looking for high grades for professional or grad school, which may be entirely incompatible with being challenged. 4 and 5, they’re just unanswersable babble. I hope the author didn’t actually get paid for this worthless advice.</p>
<p>The only reason I said this is because POIH has been spamming for MIT all over the boards these last few days…and I was kind of annoyed…lol. But I agree with MommaJ…how generic and vague. But I guess POIH STILL believes MIT is the end-all-be-all school…
<p>I don’t believe in the “best school,” but simply the “best school for you/me.” My kids loved their colleges and they truly found the best match for themselves. I would never presume that these schools were “the best” overall or for anyone else necessarily. I am truly turned off by those who think their school is “the best school (better than other colleges).” (other than cheering a sport team or some such in terms of loyalty/spirit)</p>
<p>And I was merely pointing out what may have been unclear. When someone quotes another person ver batim, they usually put it in quotes or in a quotebox. That was not done, so it appeared that the list and the following sentence might have been written by the OP, rather than having been quoted directly from the article, as they were. It appears that the very last sentence, about finances, may have been written by the OP, but there is no differentiation between the quoted part and the last sentence which, IMO, is unclear.</p>