<p>I am narrowing my college search from 5 to 2 colleges. I am accepted at all 5. I want the best education available from an Indiana school. I have been accepted to:</p>
<p>IU
Manchester
Tri-State
Ball State
Carthage College</p>
<p>I want to work for the FBI, but i called them up and they said it did not matter which college i went to. What do you think? I am majoring in accounting. IU is ranked 8th in the nation for their accounting program, but Manchester is only an hour away. Both are costing about the same right now with my scholarship from manchester.</p>
<p>My best friend graduated from Manchester's accounting program, my father-in-law received his accounting degree at Ball State, and I have worked with a number of IU accounting majors. IU clearly has a stronger national reputation than either Ball State or Manchester (in fact, I would venture to guess that most people on this board have never really heard of Manchester). However, as you probably know, both Manchester and Ball State have strong regional reputations. If I were you, I would narrow my choice down to those three schools.</p>
<p>Then, you should figure out what you want in a college. Do you want a Big Ten, large college atmosphere where, in all likelihood, most of your classes will be taught by ta's (not necessarily a bad thing), where the focus is on research and graduate programs and where you will be one of a large number of students going through the same program? Would you rather be at a small, liberal arts institution where your classes will be much smaller, where the emphasis is on teaching, rather than research, and where virtually everyone on campus will know you by the end of the first year? Do you want to be at a medium-sized school where the focus is on teaching, but where your classes will be relatively large and the academic seriousness of your fellow classmates will widely vary?</p>
<p>Personally, I am biased toward small, liberal arts colleges. However, I am fully able to recognize that this setting does not appeal to every person. Frankly, the accounting curriculum at all three schools will be very similar to each other. So, I think that the bigger questions are: 1) what type of setting personally appeals to you; and 2) what type of setting will, academically speaking, give you the best opportunity to succeed. If you can figure out the answers to those two questions, it should go a long way in answering the question of which school is best setting for you.</p>
<p>Great post, icemaker. I'd add the point that IU Bloomington probably offers the widest range of strong programs should you decide that accounting doesn't add up for you.</p>