<p>As for the house metaphor, I must admit, I never looked at this that way.</p>
<p>I guess the biggest thing is the competition aspect for getting into college. The last 6 or 7 years of my life have been shadowed by the fact that I’d be going to college soon. Many of my actions have been vastly affected by it. The way I spend my time, who I associate with (outside of friends), and so on has been vastly skewed. It’s a frightening process to even get accepted into college and that is the main driving force when looking at this whole process.</p>
<p>If I were to rank my factors for looking at colleges it would be:
- Quality of Academics
- Cost</p>
<p>If I were to rank my factors for looking for a house to buy it would be:
- Cost
- Quality of the house.</p>
<p>That these are reversed is because, to buy a house, you don’t have to (in most cases) impress the owner with your varied, well rounded quality as a home owner. You don’t have to prove your intelligence, your character, your amazingness. You don’t have to be chosen as worthy of owning that specific house. You just need to pay up.</p>
<p>But with colleges - most are extremely expensive. This isn’t likely to change based on the quality of education or the difficulty of attendance. Cost is somewhat independent (though it does indeed vary). But the education is often very reflective of how difficult it is to be admitted to that school. The top schools are the hardest to get into and when I’m fighting tooth and nail for a chance to be accepted into one in a collection of “holy grail” schools - I’m focused on what it is I’m fighting for. Education. The fact that I’m forced to go out of my way – miles out of my way, just to get into one of these institutions, makes the object that I’m fighting for that much more valuable to me. The way I see it, I’m fighting for a good quality of education and if I by some stroke of luck manage to win, I’m not going to be eyeing the price tag, I’m going to be taking the spoils of victory.</p>
<p>Yes there are plenty of implications of college attendance. The cost to my money at this moment and what money I may earn in the future (due to loans I may take out), the location I’ll be spending the next four years of my limited life, the “connections” I’m able to make at a given place, the people I’m going to meet, the ways in which I’m going to grow personally, they’re all things that go along with and must be considered when attending a college. But none of them have been able to force the “quality of education” factor out from under the spotlight in my eyes. </p>
<p>I guess my parents (though they have been pretty hands off during this whole process) see this whole thing from a different perspective. They are tasked with supporting the student, paying (in part) for the education, and dealing with all that comes with a child attending college. But my perspective sees a different picture and I’m afraid I’m finding it difficult to put as much emphasis on cost as I may be asked to.</p>
<p>Edit: My responses end up being far too late to be very effective. Just know I am reading and responding to each comment though, it may be taking a while :.</p>