<p>As others have said, the criteria that make a school “great” vary from student to student. I didn’t know what USNWR was before my sophomore year of high school. Before that, I had a college list of schools I thought were “great” because they had programs I liked and were in areas I wanted to explore. </p>
<p>A few weeks before the end of the last school year, I was sitting around with one of my teachers and a few classmates, and we had a whole discussion about college. Each one of the students involved had a different opinion of what made a school “great.” One girl wanted a liberal arts college that was in a different part of the country. Another guy wanted a school with lots of opportunities for science. One of my friends just wants to be intellectually stimulated in college. Everyone’s got a different opinion!</p>
<p>I’m looking over this list of great schools that’s been posted a few times in this thread-those are all great schools, but they aren’t the only ones! In my opinion, a great school is one where:
a) students are challenged
b) students are happy
c) students can find programs that they find interesting</p>
<p>because
a) I don’t think I need to explain the importance of challenge in academics. At the same time, “challenging” is another term whose definition changes depending upon the student.
b) Unhappy students aren’t going to do well. And not everyone is going to be happy at the same schools. This is where “fit” comes in-location, size, climate, etc. And even then, not every student is going to apply those the same way.
c) I just had this discussion with someone. I guess it sort of applies to point b, but if a student hates his/her academic options, the school isn’t a “great” school for that person, now is it? </p>
<p>So I guess the purpose of this long-winded post is to say that it’s all relative. A “great” school for me and a “great” school for someone else are probably two completely different schools, and we probably have two completely different reasons for picking our “great” schools.</p>