<p>Hi, this coming school year (when school starts this fall), I will be a senior and yet I'm still not quite sure which college I want to attend. I was just wondering how do people select their colleges? I have a few prospective colleges in mind, but I only picked them off the college ranking lists... It seems to me I really have no preference, I'm not sure if I would like suburban or urban better, big or small school, no season preference, etc. So does this mean almost any college is good enough for me? Since I don't have much preference for my colleges, I only look at their ranking and ... reputation. Could someone please "help" me prefer something, or... explain to me the advantages and disadvantages of different colleges? Help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advanced....!</p>
<p>You could start by thinking about your own interests. What do you want to study? (Obviously, if you want to be a teacher, for example, you don't want to end up at a campus that does not offer education majors.) Or, if you're not sure, do you want to be on a campus that has good support for the "undecided"? Also, is there any particular extracurricular activity or interest that you want to continue (or start for the first time) in college? You could start by seeing which colleges have the things you want and eliminating the ones that don't.</p>
<p>You may also want to take a look at your own qualifications. If, for example, you have a 3.0 GPA and 550 on each section of the SAT, you would be wasting your time investigating the most selective colleges in the country, such as Harvard or Stanford, because your chances of admission are very low. On the other hand, if you have a 3.9 unweighted GPA and 750+ on each section of the SAT, you're selling yourself short if you only look at community colleges.</p>
<p>One thing you may want to do, right now before school starts, is to visit a few nearby colleges (even if you don't necessarily want to go to college near home). Take the tours. Sit through the information sessions. (The schedules of tours and information sessions are on the colleges' Web sites.) You will probably discover that you have more opinions than you realized. For example, when the admissions officer at school A says "We don't guarantee housing for freshmen," you may think "I don't want to go here. Being able to live on campus is important to me." Or when you see school B's urban campus, you may think, "I love the energy here and the fact that there are so many internship opportunities nearby. I would like a school like this, even if it doesn't turn out to be this one." Whatever your reactions, you've learned something about your own preferences.</p>
<p>Finally, you might want to talk to your parents. If they went to college in the U.S., they probably have lots of ideas. Even if they didn't, they may have ideas based on what happened to their friends' and coworkers' kids ("My boss's daughter loves the journalism program at State U but doesn't like the fact that the campus is in the middle of nowhere.") Your parents are also your best source of information on a subject that's very important in college selection -- money. They know how much your family can afford to pay. You need to ask them about it.</p>
<p>Marian, thanks so much, that was really helpful, and it is much appreciated. One thing though, go to an international school in China, and I don't have much time to visit any colleges, however there might be college fairs where each college has representatives for its own college there. I guess I'll check those out. </p>
<p>Also, another thing, hah. Yes, I did go to my parents. However, to put it bluntly, they weren't much help. My parents are Chinese, and they came to the States under a scholarship and so they didn't have much choice in the colleges they went to and don't know much about other colleges (except for the legendary ivies), and as for going to college in China for them, they just wanted to get into the best college (academically) in China... So that was basically how they chose their colleges.</p>
<p>Haha, and yes, since I don't have much preference in the college I'm applying to (so far), we based most my listed colleges on financial aspects.</p>
<p>If there's any other advice, it would be greatly appreciated. And again, thanks so much Marian... I should've asked this question earlier..........</p>
<p>Some other considerations:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>What type of environment suits you best? Do you want to go to school in a big city with the large number of things to do there? Would you rather be in a college town where the school is a significant part of the culture, but by no means all of it? Do you want to be isolated from outside distractions? Are there weather preferences? The fact is that for all that college provides ecucational opportunities, it provides maturing and cultural ones as well. You need to be happy where you are.</p></li>
<li><p>In the same vein, would you prefer to be at a larger school or a smaller one? Have a lot of choices in classes, extracurriculars and social groups, or be able to know much of the student body and your teachers on a more intimate basis? Are spectator sports important to you--if you're a good athlete, is the opportunity to possibly play at a smaller school meaningful? These questions could also be asked about other interests, such as theatre. Again, you're going to spend 4 years at this place--those considerations mean something.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have a particular area you're interested in studying? What schools offer, and are considered proficient in that area? If you don't have a special interest, does the school provide a broad based education and offer enough choices to pique your academic curiosity?</p></li>
<li><p>What is the student body like? Some of this can be ascertained from numbers (i.e., <em>_% minority, _</em><em>% female/male; _</em>% from various geographical areas) which are available on schools' websites--the rest is more a word of mouth determination. Don't be afraid to ask.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>
<p>VISIT SCHOOLS... visit one in the city, visit one in a small town, visit one thats huge, visit one thats small... you'll start to get a preference.</p>
<p>souped4 - Did you happen to read that the op lives in CHINA?</p>
<p>oh, my bad. well then, my only other advice would be to go to princetonreview .com and you can fill out this thing called "counselor-o-matic" and it gives you safetys, reaches, and match schools based on preferences (even though you dont have any) but test scores as well.</p>