<p>Did you consider only academics? How important was brand prestige in your decision? Did you utilize rankings or some aspect of rankings to help you decide which schools to pursue? What non-academic factors did you consider? Size? Location? Weather? Social life? Role of sports? Diversity of student body? Please comment on what worked for you and how others might benefit from your experience.</p>
<p>I looked mostly at where the colleges were that's y I applied for schools in Cali and NYC. I also used USNEWS rankings to help me out.</p>
<p>I considered: (in no particular order)</p>
<p>prestige, diversity, location, cost, how good the colleges were with financial aid, acacdemic integrity, u.s news and princeton review rankings, special programs that they have for minorities, did the college just have one program that they were known for, or is every program at the school respected?, will attending this college change my life for the better, do they have programs such as study abroad, do they have extracurriculars that meet my interests, is the alumni network extensive?</p>
<p>well basically here in brand-conscious singapore most people know only about HYPSM. i got into duke, and im still not sure whether to accept because of the lower perceived prestige here :(</p>
<p>Go to Duke. You are going to college for you, not for someone else. People will be able to figure out that you are smart, and you will be taught well.</p>
<p>And my search - location, diversity, prestige/student profile(how I'm using it, they are similar), and a whole lot on 'feel'.</p>
<p>In order, I looked for schools that were</p>
<p>1) In the particular region/states I wanted.
2) A medium size (~5000).
3) A suburban campus.
4) Generous with financial aid.
5) Strong in my major.</p>
<p>Only about 20-30 were left once I went through these steps, and it wasn't too hard to eliminate the universities that didn't fit.</p>